Not a bird anymore?
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when I was growing up, it seemed like every dinosaur book available to the general public ( with few notable exceptions ) had to have a section dedicated to other prehistoric animals that shared the world of the Mesozoic Era with them , most often marine reptiles (plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs), flying reptiles (pterosaurs), occasionally mammals and their relatives ( synapsids ) and almost always there was a subsection dedicated to Archaeopteryx (“old wing”) . And there was a good reason for that. “Archie”, as it is affectionately known (or Urvogel -” primeval bird”- in Germa n ), was the n universally considered both the oldest bird known by science and an important transitional fossil between reptiles and birds. It was fully feathered, had wings for arms, had big eyes and brain, and also had developed a wishbone, like modern birds. But it also had clawed “hands” on its wings, pointy teeth in its mouth, a long bony tail and a skeleton that