In the limestone quarries of Solnhofn, Bavaria, in 1861 was found the first fossil of Archaeopteryx lithographica.   German palaeontologist Hermann von Meyer described it ( and named it) but it was owned by local physician Karl Haberlein, who sold it to the British Museum ( to Richard Owen) for £700.

In 1863 Owen published his own description of the creature.  The London specimen lacks a head but otherwise it preserved in superb detail including impressions of feathers.   It appeared to be a Compsognathus with feathers - the missing link between dinosaurs and birds - but Owen, a definite anti-evolutionist, viewed it as a bird.

A second, and even better preserved specimen, was to be found in the same quarries in 1877 - the 'Berlin' Archaeopteryx.

Richard Owen: 'On the Archaeopteryx of von Meyer, with a description of the Fossil Remains of a Long-tailed species, from the Lithographic Stone of Solenhofen' in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol.153 (1863), pp.33-47.