archaeopteryx (n.)

Jurassic fossil animal long considered the oldest known bird (in 21c. new candidates emerged), 1871, from German (1861), coined in Modern Latin by German paleontologist Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer, from archaeo- "ancient, primitive" + Greek pteryx "wing" (from PIE root *pet- "to rush, to fly"). Discovered (first as a single feather) by Andreas Wagner in 1860 or '61 in Bavaria.