6 In 1861, quarry workers in Germany discovered the fossil of Archaeopteryx , a creature with feathers, a bony tail, clawed wings, and dinosaur-like teeth. The fossil provided strong evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs over 150 million years ago. Today, there are almost 11,000 species of birds found in all major habitats of the world. Feathered dinosaur Since the 1860s, 11 different fossils of Archaeopteryx have been found in Germany. The “Berlin Archaeopteryx ” (above) was discovered in the 1870s. Its wings and legs are well preserved, as are the outlines of its feathers. Wings Outline of feathers Tail Leg Staying balanced Birds are compact creatures. A bird’s heavy wing and leg muscles are packed around the rib cage and backbone. This allows a bird to stay balanced both in the sky and on the ground. Skull Neck Large eye socket Head Pterosaur Prehistoric reptiles called pterosaurs had leathery wings made of skin, but were unrelated to birds. They died out at the same time as the dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. Backbone Leg bone As dead as the dodo The dodo, shown here in an illustration from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , was one of many birds driven to extinction by human action. The dodo was a flightless bird found in Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean. It became extinct in the late 17th century. Front view of a crow’s skeleton Many pterosaurs had head crests. The slender wings were used for soaring over the ocean.