Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx
Name meaning	Ancient wing
Diet	Carnivore (Meat-Eater)
Length	2 feet (60 cm)
Birth type	Egg
Game appearances	Jurassic Park III: Park Builder Jurassic Park: The Game Jurassic Park Arcade
Toy appearances	Jurassic Park Junior
Comic appearances	Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games I

Archaeopteryx (ARC-KEA-OP-TER-IX) was a small bird-like dinosaur, about the size of a present day crow. Its skeleton was very similar to that of some theropod dinosaurs - it had a four-toed foot with the first toe reversed to the other three; a three-fingered hand; a long, straight, bony tail; teeth; curved claws on the hands and feet; and a large crest on the upper arm bone.

The most strikingly bird-like feature of Archaeopteryx is the feathers. Not only did this dinosaur clearly have feathers, but these were arranged in exactly the same pattern as feathers on the wings of modern birds. Since its initial discovery there has been some debate about what kind of reptiles Archaeopteryx is most closely related to. We now recognize that its closest relatives are some theropod dinosaurs, such as the dromaeosaurs and the oviraptors. In fact, the skeleton of Archaeopteryx is so theropod-like that one specimen found without feathers was for many years mistakenly identified as the small theropod Compsognathus.

Wikipedia has a more detailed and comprehensive article on Archaeopteryx

• Games
• Topps
• IDW
• Toys

Jurassic Park III: Park Builder

Archaeopteryx can be created from Paleo-DNA in the game.

Jurassic Park: The Game

Though it does not appear in any form in the game's story, a fossil of Archaeopteryx based on the famous Berlin specimen is seen on the main menu and the main loading screen of the game to the right of the fossil of Ardeosaurus.

Archaeopteryx seen to the right of the image.

Jurassic Park Arcade

• Archaeopteryx makes an appearance as one of the dinosaur enemies in the game.

Archaeopteryx appears in the Topps comics.

Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games

Archaeopteryx was one the creates created by InGen for Jurassic Park and went wild after the incident.

When drug lord Gabriel Cazares and his cartel bought Isla Nublar, Gabriel kept an Archaeopteryx as a pet, having it be perched on his arm and feeding it small fish. It is never seen again after Cazares' confrontation with Daniel Espinoza before he dropped him off into the forests of Isla Nublar and if the bird survived Espinoza's and Dr. Francis White's assault on the Visitor Center.

Jurassic Park Junior

An Archaeopteryx figure also appears in the Jurassic Park Junior line. As of now it is the first and only bird figure to appear in a Jurassic Park toyline.