Specimens of Archaeopteryx in 1860 or 1861 and described in 1861 by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer. The fossil consists of two counterslabs, designated BSP 1869 VIII 1 (main slab) and MB.Av.100 (counterslab). Its two counterslabs are currently located at the Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Geology of Munich University and the Natural History Museum in Berlin, respectively. This feather is generally assigned to "Archaeopteryx" and was the initial holotype, but whether it actually is a feather of this species or another, as yet undiscovered, avialan is unknown. There are some indications it is not from the same animal as most of
Specimens of Archaeopteryx a fish. Fragments of the braincase and upper jaw were later identified and published by other researchers. While Owen's 1863 monograph on the specimen is historically considered to be the first real description of "Archaeopteryx", Henry Woodward, assistant of the Geological Department of the British Museum, had published a shorter article on the specimen in December 1862. Here he provided a detailed description as well as the first published illustration of the specimen, sketched from the original. Rather than an attempt to steal Owen's glory, Woodward gave him due credit in this article as its official describer. Woodward's article nevertheless