The counter slab of the Berlin specimen
Hwa Ja Götz (MfN)
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Berlin, Germany
The Berlin specimen has been in the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin since 1880. The main slab — sometimes referred to as the Mona Lisa among fossils — has been on permanent display in the Museum für Naturkunde since 2007. In 2011, for the special exhibition "Feathered Flight", its counter slab — the mirror image of the main slab, normally kept in the safe of the Palaeontological Collection — has been presented for the first time.
More about this famous dinosaur at the Museum für Naturkunde:
Archaeopteryx lithographica – The Berlin specimen – The transitional fossil link between dinosaurs and modern birds.
Feathered Flight — 150 years of Archaeopteryx
- Title: The counter slab of the Berlin specimen
- Creator: Hwa Ja Götz (MfN)
- Location Stored: Invalidenstraße 43, 10115 Berlin
- Physical Location: Museum für Naturkunde, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115 Berlin
- Story: Unfortunately, when excavating Archaeopteryx in haste, Häberlein destroyed some of its parts beyond repair. What he put together again on a slab looks like a puzzle with parts missing. In spite of its shortcomings, the value of the counter slab for the scientific community cannot be valued highly enough.Its surface shows imprints of feathers in amazing detail. This is what makes the counter slab so special for current evolutionary research.
- Rights: © Museum für Naturkunde. All rights reserved.
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