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

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.