Which is the first bird in the world?

The remains of the first bird were found in 1861 in a limestone maid in Bavaria. The second skeleton was discovered in 1877 and almost a century later, in 1956, the third. Significantly, all three skeletons were found at a distance of 15 km.


"Archaeopteryx lithographica (Berlin specimen)" by H. Raab (User: Vesta) - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

All three skeletons are thought to have belonged to the same species of Archaeopteryx lithographica, in short archeopteryx. It is named after the limestone in which it was discovered, and sometimes its called by its German name Urvogel, which means ‘first bird’ or ‘original bird’. This animal lived 150 million years ago.