In 1832, Meyer issued a work entitled Palaeologica, and went on to publish a series of memoirs on various fossil organic remains: molluscs, crustaceans, fishes and higher vertebrata,[1] including the Triassic predator Teratosaurus, the earliest bird Archaeopteryx lithographica (1861),[2] the pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus, and the prosauropod dinosaur Plateosaurus.

In Palaeologica, Meyer proposed a classification of fossil reptiles into four major groups based on their limbs: His second group he belatedly termed Pachypodes in 1845, later revising to Pachypoda, from the Greek "pachy-/παχυ-" ("stout") and "pous/πους" ("foot").

He postulated the relation of this group to Dinosauria, coined a few years earlier by Richard Owen.

[1] He was associated with W Dunker and Karl Alfred von Zittel in the publication of the Palaeontographica, which began in 1851.

[3] Today, Meyer is probably best known for describing and naming the prosauropod dinosaur Plateosaurus engelhardti from Central Europe.