Specimens of Archaeopteryx precipitated the first surge of widespread knowledge of the specimen across Europe. In the subsequent years of the 19th century, the London specimen was subject to a number of analyses by other researchers of historical importance, including Thomas Huxley, Othniel Charles Marsh, Wilhelm Dames, and Bronislav Petronievics. Much of this early study was relevant to controversy surrounding the possible taxonomic divisions of "Archaeopteryx" specimens. The London specimen is of obvious special importance because it was the first "Archaeopteryx" skeleton discovered. By coining the name "Archaeopteryx", meaning "ancient wing", von Meyer had declared the animal to be a bird. Despite the
Specimens of Archaeopteryx totaling 1,756 Solnhofen specimens - was purchased the following year. In this way the London Museum came to acquire a truly important collection of fossils, many of them quite rare or undescribed at the time. Wellnhofer remarks that it was likely not the price that kept the Bavarian State Paleontological Collection in Munich from acquiring the fossil, but rather the hesitating attitude of Andreas Wagner which delayed any action. Following Wagner's death in 1861, negotiations with Häberlein certainly would have been all the more difficult. In the wake of this important transaction of the first "Archaeopteryx" body fossil, many German