CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS IN THE LEAD 

The first sentence in the lead says that Archaeopteryx was a genus of "early bird". The paragraph then goes on to say "Since the late 19th century, it has been generally accepted by palaeontologists, and celebrated in lay reference works, as being the oldest known bird, though some more recent studies have cast doubt on this assessment, finding that it might instead be a non-avialan dinosaur closely related to the origin of birds." This is contradictory: How can we definitively state that it is an "early bird" and then go on to say that we aren't sure? Nevermind the fact that it is unsourced, and old accounts from the 1800s don't really count. Can someone rationalize this?