 Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer described this feather as "Archaeopteryx lithographica" the next year.Richard Owen described a nearly complete skeleton in 1863, recognizing it as a bird despite many features reminiscent of reptiles, including clawed forelimbs and a long, bony tail.Biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his tenacious support of the new theory of evolution by means of natural selection, almost immediately seized upon "Archaeopteryx" as a transitional fossil between birds and reptiles.