[PapaBear3625]

Interestingly, the Archaeopteryx specimens found thus far lack any feathering on the upper neck and head, which may be a result of the preservation process.

Or it may have had a featherless head and neck like the modern vulture.

I could see it having a niche as a carrion feeder, munching on the dead critters, and being able to fly away when bigger dinosaurs came by.

[sheik yerbouty]

Cherodactyl?

[ETL]

FWIT...

“The Archaeopteryx specimens come from the Solnholfen lithographic limestones.

The Solnhofen limestones formed in the oxygen-starved waters at the bottom of a lagoon.

The absence of oxygen meant that there were few scavengers there, so if a bird happened to die in the lagoon and then sink, it would lay there at the bottom without being disturbed.

They would be slowly buried in an ooze of tiny limestone grains, which were produced by plankton called coccolithophores.

As the limestone entombed the bird, layer by layer it formed a mold around the feathers and hardened, preserving minute details of feather structure and arrangement. ...”

https://sites.google.com/site/longrich/archaeopteryx-lithographica