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Answer for the clue "Usually considered the most primitive of all birds ", 13 letters:
archaeopteryx

Alternative clues for the word archaeopteryx

Word definitions for archaeopteryx in dictionaries

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. (alternative spelling of archæopteryx English)

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
Archaeopteryx , sometimes referred to by its German name ("original bird" or "first bird"), is a genus of bird-like dinosaurs that is transitional between non-avian feathered dinosaurs and modern birds . The name derives from the ancient Greek ( archaīos ...

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
n. extinct primitive toothed bird of the Jurassic period having a long feathered tail and hollow bones; usually considered the most primitive of all birds [syn: archeopteryx , Archaeopteryx lithographica ]

The Collaborative International Dictionary Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Archaeopteryx \Ar`ch[ae]*op"te*ryx\, n. [Gr. 'archai^os ancient + pte`ryx wing.] (Paleon.) A fossil bird, of the Jurassic period, remarkable for having a long tapering tail of many vertebr[ae] with feathers along each side, and jaws armed with teeth, ...

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
oldest known fossil bird, 1859, Modern Latin, from archaeo- "ancient, primitive" + Greek pteryx "wing" (see pterodactyl ).

Usage examples of archaeopteryx.

But even more than that, from our point of view, the original archaeopteryx was a bird of the past.

Most paleontologists agree now that Archaeopteryx was a true though primitive bird which was still learning to fly, but, in many respects, it was still extremely close to its dinosaur sisters.

In one corner, a live archaeopteryx was shackled to a segment of log by a short length of chain.

And, say, speaking of odd bone structureit never quite seemed possible to me that Archaeopteryx and the pterosaurs could really fly.

Bavaria found the bones of an ancient archaeopteryx, a creature halfway between a bird and a dinosaur.

Confuciusornis lived in China and only 7 million years later than the European Archaeopteryx, it seems likely that the first birds spread quickly and diversified early.

Of course, scientists may point to Archaeopteryx, but it arrived fully formed, showing no fossil record of any transitional forms.

And the flying dinosaurs -- the archaeopteryx and the pterodactyl -- became the most mobile creatures the earth had ever known.

Alas, it is now agreed that poor Archaeopteryx is no relation of modern birds.

God exists whether or not archaeopteryx ever evolved into something better.

Commissioner of Grants for the WSF, who was influential in getting the Archaeopteryx funded.

This was my first word of the discovery, and it told of the identification of early shells, bones of ganoids and placoderms, remnants of labyrinthodonts and thecodonts, great mosasaur skull fragments, dinosaur vertebrae and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and wing bones, Archaeopteryx debris, Miocene sharks’ teeth, primitive bird skulls, and other bones of archaic mammals such as palaeotheres, Xiphodons, Eohippi, Oreodons, and titanotheres.

This was my first word of the discovery, and it told of the identification of early shells, bones of ganoids and placoderms, remnants of labyrinthodonts and thecodonts, great mosasaur skull fragments, dinosaur vertebrae and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and wing bones, Archaeopteryx debris, Miocene sharks' teeth, primitive bird skulls, and other bones of archaic mammals such as palaeotheres, Xiphodons, Eohippi, Oreodons, and titanotheres.

But, admonished by an angry hissing from the archaeopteryx, together with a slashing stroke of its beak between his shoulder-blades, he went forward till he could see the fine dark fur on the dormant body and sleepily porrected head.