Specimens of Archaeopteryx feather's earlier discovery, von Meyer made the London fossil the type specimen of the genus ("Archaeopteryx") and species ("lithographica"), establishing it as the exemplar of the species' features. Its discovery and subsequent descriptions, a mere handful of years after Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", fulfilled the hope of a truly transitional form in its then-unique amalgamation of bird and reptilian characters. The specimen is preserved on two counter slabs broken originally into four pieces. The main, overlaying slab contains most of the skeletal elements, while only impressions and a few bone fragments are visible on the counter slab. This
Dinosaur vision Dinosaur vision Dinosaur vision was, in general, better than the vision of most other reptiles, although vision varied between dinosaur species. Coelurosaurs, for example, had good stereoscopic or binocular vision, whereas large carnosaurs had poor binocular vision, comparable to that of modern alligators. Most carnosaurs, including "Carcharodontosaurus" and "Allosaurus", did not have very good binocular vision, comparable to modern alligators. They possessed binocular vision which was restricted to a region only 20° wide, which is understandable, as they hunted mostly large and slow prey. Their keenest sense was probably smell. Deinonychosaurs, like "Stenonychosaurus" and "Velociraptor", had better binocular vision than