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 than flight. Pennaceous feathers thus represent an exaptation and were only later adapted for aerodynamic capabilities, a function that was apparently convergent among different groups within Avialae. In February 2014, the existence of a twelfth specimen was announced from an Altmannstein quarry near the Schamhaupten district of Bavaria. This specimen was unearthed by a private collector in 2010.. Based on a new diagnosis for the genus Archaeopteryx, by the German paleontologist Oliver Rauhut c.s., the Berlin, Eichstätt, Solnhofen, Munich, Daiting, Thermopolis, 11th, and 12th specimens can be referred to this genus with high certainty. Specimens of Archaeopteryx Archaeopteryx fossils from