Archaeopteryx

The model got the Lanzendorf-National Geographic Paleoart Prize at Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists 77th. Annual Meeting. The model is on display at Natural History Museum in Oslo. Made in collaboration with Fyens Naturværksted and Joakim Engel.

Genus of bird-like dinosaurs that is transitional between non-avian feathered dinosaurs and modern birds. The feathers suggest that they were warm-blooded. The name means ‘’first wing’’, and Considered as the oldest known bird. Archaeopteryx lived in the Late Jurassic around 150 million years ago, in what is now southern Germany. They would grow to about 50 cm in length, the size of an average adult raven.

Archaeopteryx had more in common with other small dinosaurs than they did with modern birds: Jaws with sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, a long bony tail, hyperextensible second toes – also known as “the killing claw". Together with the well-developed flight feathers, that were very similar in structure to modern-day bird feathers, these features make Archaeopteryx play an important role, not only in the study of the origin of birds, but in the study of dinosaurs.