When most people think of dinosaurs, they imagine a large, dimwitted beast lumbering around a prehistoric vista. With time and research this perception is slowly changing. Most interesting of these developments is the growing evidence linking birds and dinosaurs; a connection that could refute a century of misconceptions.

One of the most influential discoveries tying birds and dinosaurs was the unearthing of the Archaeopteryx in Solnhofen, Germany by Herman von Meyer (1860). The importance of the archaeopteryx was so extensive due its appearance as the transitional form, or missing link, between birds and reptiles. Known as the first bird, archaeopteryx was originally classified as a small dinosaur similar to compsognathus (a small chicken size dinosaur). The eventual discernment of faint feather impressions in the area surrounding the archaeopteryx fossil led to much scientific curiosity.

Feathers were only he beginning of the similarities discovered between archaeopteryx and modern birds. Upon further analysis, it was found that the resemblances between the bones were particularly extensive, but far from identical. The skeleton as a whole resembled that of theropod dinosaurs more so that modern birds, however that is not to say that likenesses were absent. The presence of a long bony tail and jaw, a flat sternum, and the absence of a bill, four very unbird-like features, combined with the presence of feathers, a wishbone, primitive wings and a reversible big toe (all exclusively avian features), secure the archaeopteryx as an important transitional species.