Specimens of Archaeopteryx Specimens of Archaeopteryx Archaeopteryx fossils from the quarries of Solnhofen limestone represent the most famous and well-known fossils from this area. They are highly significant to paleontology and avian evolution in that they document the fossil record's oldest-known birds. Over the years, twelve body fossil specimens of "Archaeopteryx" and a feather that may belong to it have been found, though one of these specimens was reassigned to another genus by two researchers in 2017. All of the fossils come from the upper Jurassic lithographic limestone deposits, quarried for centuries, near Solnhofen, Germany. The initial discovery, a single feather, was unearthed
Specimens of Archaeopteryx its aerodynamic function as a flight feather. As the feather bears little resemblance to the retrices of the other full "Archaeopteryx" skeletons, it is generally thought to be a wing feather: Griffiths and others have concluded it was a remex, while Carney in 2012 interpreted it to be a covert feather. The feather has a relatively low degree of asymmetry, which Speakman and Thompson in 1994 concluded to indicate it as a secondary remex. If this is the case, then it would have originated from an animal smaller than even the Eichstätt specimen, which is the smallest "Archaeopteryx" specimen known