Reassessment of the Wing Feathers of Archaeopteryx lithographica Suggests No Robust Evidence for the Presence of Elongated Dorsal Wing Coverts

Recently it was proposed that the primary feathers of Archaeopteryx lithographica (HMN1880) were overlaid by long covert feathers, and that a multilayered feathered wing was a feature of early fossils with feathered forelimbs. The proposed long covert feathers of Archaeopteryx were previously interpreted as dorsally displaced remiges or a second set of impressions made by the wing. The following study shows that the qualitative arguments...