Shipman correctly cites T. H. Huxley as the first to claim a dinosaur ancestry for archaeopteryx, in 1868. The curious feature of this is that Huxley entered the fray so late; before 1867, he considered that birds and dinosaurs shared a common Triassic ancestor, and dismissed archaeopteryx as being too recent to be of significance.
Between them, the great Victorian scientists considered most of the possibilities, such as warm-bloodedness, being debated today. Some read so much into the archaeopteryx specimen that Hugh Falconer, the palaeontologist, was moved to write in 1865: "Tomorrow you will find the liver and lights; and, in the long run, the fossil song."
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