Archaeopteryx weak flight abilities. "Archaeopteryx" continues to play an important part in scientific debates about the origin and evolution of birds. Some scientists see it as a semi-arboreal climbing animal, following the idea that birds evolved from tree-dwelling gliders (the "trees down" hypothesis for the evolution of flight proposed by O. C. Marsh). Other scientists see "Archaeopteryx" as running quickly along the ground, supporting the idea that birds evolved flight by running (the "ground up" hypothesis proposed by Samuel Wendell Williston). Still others suggest that "Archaeopteryx" might have been at home both in the trees and on the ground, like modern
Specimens of Archaeopteryx ähnlichen Federn bedeckten "" ("skeleton of an animal covered in similar feathers"). In German, this ambiguity is resolved by the term "Schwinge" which does not necessarily mean a wing used for flying. "Urschwinge" was the favored translation of "Archaeopteryx" among German scholars in the late 19th century. In English, "ancient pinion" offers a rough approximation. Hermann von Meyer learned of the discovery of what would later be known as the London Specimen before he published his analysis of the single "Archaeopteryx" feather. In September 1861 he wrote to the "Neues Jahrbuch" about being informed of the discovery by Friedrich Ernst