File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18133591146).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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THE BEGINNINGS OF FLIGHT 11 tissue. Little by little the line of feath- ers and their coverts sank into insigni- ficance and became lost among the body plumage. It affords an excellent ex- ample of what Professor Henry F. Osborn would call the phylogenetic acceleration of a character, followed by its gradual reduction. Millions of years after they were of use, the feathers of the pelvic wing are still reproduced in embryo and nestling. And for some unknown reason, Nature makes each squab pass through this Tetrapteryx stage. The line of feathers along the leg of the young bird repro- duces in this diminutive, useless way the glory that once was theirs. No fossil bird of the ages prior to Archoeopteryx may come to light, but the memory of Tetrapteryx lingers in every dove-cote." Thus were scaly, creeping reptiles, transformed into feathered, flying birds, the more marked stages in the process being indicated in the accompanying diagrammatic figures which, with the cut of Tetrapteryx have been kindly loaned to the Journal by the New York Zoological Society.
Text Appearing After Image:
Restoration of Archaeopteryx After W. P. PycrafI

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