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Transitional fossil
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===Post-Darwin=== [[File:Rhynia reconstruction.svg|thumb|upright|Reconstruction of ''[[Rhynia]]'']] The idea that animal and plant species were not constant, but changed over time, was suggested as far back as the 18th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Archibald |first1=J. David |date=August 2009 |title=Edward Hitchcock's Pre-Darwinian (1840) 'Tree of Life' |url=http://www.bio.sdsu.edu/faculty/archibald.html/Archibald09JHB42p561.pdf |journal=[[Journal of the History of Biology]] |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=561–592 |doi=10.1007/s10739-008-9163-y |issn=0022-5010 |pmid=20027787 |citeseerx=10.1.1.688.7842 |s2cid=16634677 }}</ref> Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species'', published in 1859, gave it a firm scientific basis. A weakness of Darwin's work, however, was the lack of palaeontological evidence, as pointed out by Darwin himself. While it is easy to imagine [[natural selection]] producing the variation seen within [[genus|genera]] and families, the transmutation between the higher categories was harder to imagine. The dramatic find of the [[Archaeopteryx#History of discovery|London specimen]] of ''[[Archaeopteryx]]'' in 1861, only two years after the publication of Darwin's work, offered for the first time a link between the [[class (biology)|class]] of the highly derived birds, and that of the more basal [[reptile]]s.{{sfn|Darwin|1859|loc=[http://www.readprint.com/chapter-2217/Charles-Darwin Chapter 10]}} In a letter to Darwin, the palaeontologist [[Hugh Falconer]] wrote: <blockquote>Had the Solnhofen quarries been commissioned—by august command—to turn out a strange being à la Darwin—it could not have executed the behest more handsomely—than in the ''Archaeopteryx''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Williams |first=David B. |date=September 2011 |title=Benchmarks: September 30, 1861: Archaeopteryx is discovered and described |url=http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-september-30-1861-archaeopteryx-discovered-and-described |journal=EARTH |issn=1943-345X |access-date=2012-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507072544/http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-september-30-1861-archaeopteryx-discovered-and-described |archive-date=7 May 2012 }}</ref></blockquote> Thus, transitional fossils like ''Archaeopteryx'' came to be seen as not only corroborating Darwin's theory, but as icons of evolution in their own right.<ref>{{harvnb|Wellnhofer|2009}}</ref> For example, the Swedish [[encyclopedic dictionary]] ''Nordisk familjebok'' of 1904 showed an inaccurate ''Archaeopteryx'' reconstruction (see illustration) of the fossil, "ett af de betydelsefullaste paleontologiska fynd, som någonsin gjorts" ("one of the most significant paleontological discoveries ever made").<ref>{{harvnb|Leche|1904|pp=[https://runeberg.org/nfba/0758.html 1379–1380]}}</ref>
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