Archaeopteryx, ahr kee OP tuhr ihks, is the name of a genus (group) of feathered animals that lived about 150 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic Period. These crow-sized creatures had a reptilelike skeleton closely resembling that of a small dinosaur. However, they also had fully developed feathers and birdlike wings. As a result, most scientists classify Archaeopteryx as birds. The first Archaeopteryx fossils were found during the 1860's in Bavaria, a state in Germany. They provided the first solid evidence that birds descended from reptiles.