Resurrecting Urvogel - The Paleo-Reconstruction of Archaeopteryx by Bob Nicholls

[@Nasuto1702]

Very facinating. What a great talk by Mr. Nicholls. Thank You!

[@dean7301]

What an amazing reconstruction - and a great talk as well, I really enjoyed being able to see the thought process that goes into the development of such a model

[@Francois2144]

I deeply enjoyed this video. I wish Bob Nicholls would do more videos where he talks about his paleo-reconstructions. I've never seen Archaeopteryx so life like before.

[@kamion53]

this looks great and so different from the old reconstructions.

[@phoenixleather8963]

Mr. Nicholls linked this on his tumblr blog a few days ago and I'm so glad he did, this was a wonderful watch that I probably would have never found otherwise. ❤ Fantastic work!

[@abstractgrant]

Terrific talk, thank you for going into so much detail! I love the look of the model. He's really cute, but he also looks like he would bite you if you got too close.

[@pablocaceres7378]

This guy is so good at what he does

[@patrickstephens7795]

TIL that you were correct about the second toe. I really dug into it because it's hard to imagine what function it may have served. The claw is roughly the same size as the ones on toe 3 and 4, nor do the phalanges look reinforced in such a way as to allow for it it handle additional mechanical force (though simple being shorter would presumable help somewhat with that). However, a newer paper than the two sources you cite pretty much completely confirms that it did have a hyperextendable second toe: Mayr, Gerald, et al. "The tenth skeletal specimen of Archaeopteryx." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149.1 (2007): 97-116. If you look really closely at Figure 13E, you can see where the joint is expanded in such as way as to allow the toe to rotate upwards back towards the body (the proximodorsal expansion of the distal articular surface of the first phalanx) . So as strange as it appears, that really is how they would have often been positioned. Well done! [I'm sure the opinion of this rando on the internet means a lot to you . . .]