Archaeopteryx — Claw
A grasping finger from the dawn of flight.
Cast at an inch and a half, this is one of the recurved manual claws that tipped the wing fingers, a structure with no equivalent in any living adult bird. Isolated on a stand it becomes a study in the in-between anatomy of the animal, the hand of a small predator carried into the air.
The curve of the keratin sheath and the fine surface texture are picked out by hand to preserve the precision of the original.
Archaeopteryx bore three separate clawed fingers on each wing, possibly used for grasping or climbing.
Such recurved wing claws are largely absent in modern adult birds, surviving most famously in the hoatzin chick, which loses them as it matures.
Around a dozen skeletal specimens and an isolated feather are known, almost all recovered from the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria.
Archaeopteryx — Claw
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