Fossil Friday: Archeopteryx

[purplecat]

One of my dinosaur books rather dubiously claims that Archeopteryx is "perhaps the most famous extinct organism in the world". I find this doubtful - surely Tyrannosaurus Rex holds that distinction?





Still, the discovery of the first Archeopteryx fossil in 1861 is a hugely important point in the history of our understanding of dinosaurs, bird evolution and evolution in general. B. has occasionally bombarded Archeopteryx specimens with fundamental particles.

Comments

Wither the Brontosaurus?

[ed_rex]

Agreed, T. Rex is much more famous than Archeopteryx. I'd hazard the guess that even old Brontosaurus (or whatever "he" is nowadays named) is ahead of the old bird.

I wonder if the author of your book wasn't an ornithologist in their second career; certainly a good case can be made that Archeopteryx should be the world's most famous, er, extinct organism. (But that wording ...!)

Re: Wither the Brontosaurus?

[purplecat]

Someone over at t'other place made a plausible suggestion of the Dodo, which is pretty much a byword for an extinct organism.

TBH, I think all the dinosaurs us 1970s kids had models of (T. Rex, Brachiosaurus (Brontosaurus), Triceratops, Stegosaurus) are probably better known than the Archeopteryx and, thanks to Jurassic Park, you can probably add Velociraptors to that list as well.

Re: Wither the Brontosaurus?

[ed_rex]

The dodo suggestion really struck me, but on second thought, I suspect it applies only to a small demographic. "Everyone" (ahem) plays with toy dinosaurs, but only bio-nerds (or fans of Adams' era Doctor Who and or the Alice books) are likely to be familiar with the dodo.

Re: Wither the Brontosaurus?

[purplecat]

It's impossible to tell, particularly since I've no idea which examples various education systems push these days, because frankly "what everyone knows" boils down to "what everyone got taught in school". I think the Dodo gets wheeled out a lot in the UK, but I think dinosaurs are a pretty popular topic in primary education as well, so who knows.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It's got to be T Rex

[purplecat]

I think vocatus_fortis could be right about the Dodo... but either way, definitely not Archeopteryx.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Mm, yes, that is a fair point

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'd put woolly mammoths ahead of Archeopteryx.

[purplecat]

And probably any of the really famous dinosaurs like Triceratops and Stegosaurus...

[vocatus-fortis.livejournal.com]

I'd say the dodo was the most famous.

[purplecat]

Ooh! You could be right!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Mm, you could well be right

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I have given this some (probably too much) thought. I think the dodo is a fair suggestion for the older generations (among whom I count myself) but I do not feel it is as significant a part of the cultural baggage of the younger generations, and therefore not of the population as a whole. I have not heard the phrase "dead as a dodo" much recently (nor, indeed, "dead as a doornail", alas poor Marley!) My two-year-old nephew, for instance, can reliably identify a T. Rex, and indeed a triceratops and stegosaurus, but I doubt has any familiarity with a dodo.

Alright, I have done some research using the resident members of the younger generation, 8 and 10. Slightly to my surprise (though I probably should have known better, especially as one has a special interest in all areas of biology) both did enthusiastically agree to having heard of a dodo, and could prove they knew what was meant ("An extinct flightless bird", "with a big beak!"); only one had heard of archeopteryx ("flying dinosaur with a long neck", good enough.) When asked to rank the three contenders in order of most to least famous, both firmly agreed that it was T. Rex first, then the dodo, with archeopteryx a long way behind :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I applaud the research.

[purplecat]

It's difficult - I would guess that current concerns about man's impact on the environment would make the appearance of the Dodo at school far more likely than the T. Rex - on the other hand, clearly pre-school children are much more likely to have encountered the T. Rex.

We probably need to start some kind of internet meme "How many of these extinct species can you identify?" and then collate the research.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

"B. has occasionally bombarded Archeopteryx specimens with fundamental particles."

Some people juggle geese... :-)

[purplecat]

He's endlessly amazed people actually pay him to do what he does!

[liadt]

I hope no archaeopteryx were hurt by the bombarding!

What about brontosaurus;p

[purplecat]

I'm going with the Dodo, even if the no-longer-existant Brontosaurus' of our youth deserve some love.

The archeopteryx thus bombarded was a fossil - though I think there was some concern that someone might drop it, which would have been bad.