A wing and a prayer

A winged reptile from the late Triassic will go under the hammer on 27 August
in San Francisco. The world’s only fossil of Icarosaurus siefkeri set
back the date for the evolution of flight by 10 million years when it was
discovered in 1961. Its owner, Alfred Siefker, dug the fossil out of a New
Jersey quarry when he was 17 and placed it with the American Museum of Natural
History in New York. But now he plans to sell it to raise cash, according to
auction house Butterfield & Butterfield. The fossil is expected to fetch
more than $250 000.…