Ornithurae Ornithurae Ornithurae (meaning "bird tails" in Greek) is a natural group which includes the common ancestor of "Ichthyornis", "Hesperornis", and all modern birds as well as all other descendants of that common ancestor. Ernst Haeckel coined the name in 1866 and included in the group all "true birds" with the "characteristic tail morphology of all extant birds" (translation by Jacques Gauthier). This distinguishes the group from "Archaeopteryx", which Haeckel placed in another new group called Sauriurae. Said simply, modern birds have short, fused pygostyle tails, while "Archaeopteryx" retained the long tail characteristic of non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Gauthier converted Ornithurae into
Aathal Dinosaur Museum Dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx, eggs and embryos and footprints, as well as meteorites and minerals of "Siber + Siber". The collection includes 10 skeletons being finds from excavations by the museum's team, 10 further original skeletons from Dino, air and marine saurians, 19 detached skeleton fossil dinosaur replicas as well as 31 life-size dinosaur models and 42 replicas of dinosaurs and dinosaur skulls. In 2012 there were 437 guided tours, of which about three hundred for school classes, and since 1992 about 1,571,012 visitors. The staff of the museum consists of approximately 33 employees, of which six are members of the paleontological-scientific