A comprehensive new review by Field Museum of Natural History paleontologists draws together the latest fossil evidence — including analysis of five recently-described specimens, among them what the authors call arguably the best-preserved specimen yet — to offer the most complete portrait to date of Archaeopteryx’s ecology, behavior, and daily life. The researchers argue that the iconic feathered dinosaur was neither a purely ground-bound hunter nor a fully modern flier, but an ecological generalist that scrambled, perched, glided and flapped its way through a patchwork of coastal forests and dry lagoons roughly 150 million years ago.
Reconstruction of Archaeopteryx in its habitat utilizing diverse forms of locomotion: (A) flapping flight to elevated perches; (B) perching; (C) gliding flight from elevation and terrestrial lifestyle; (D) scansorial locomotion. Image credit: Field Museum / NICE PaleoVisLab Studio / Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
About 150 million years ago (Jurassic period), on a chain of low, semi-arid islands that would one day become southern Germany, a small creature picked its way across the scrub.
It had the teeth of a reptile, the claws of a predator, and the feathered wings of something that had only just learned to leave the ground.
Paleontologists have spent more than 150 years arguing about what, exactly, it could do.
“Archaeopteryx from the 150-million-year-old Solnhofen plattenkalk in southern Germany is the oldest known bird and the oldest known dinosaur to use airfoils formed by feathers for volant locomotion,” Field Museum of Natural History paleontologists Jingmai O’Connor and Alexander Clark wrote in their paper.
“Although now closely matched by the slightly younger Baminornis (149-148 million years ago) from Fujian province, China, the pectoral girdle in this taxon is much more advanced and thus Archaeopteryx remains the most phylogenetically basal taxon relevant for understanding the terrestrial to volant transition.”
In their paper, the researchers synthesize evidence from all known Archaeopteryx fossils, including five recently-described specimens, to reconstruct how the animal lived.
“The recent descriptions of five new specimens of Archaeopteryx in the 21st century has significantly contributed to the data available for this important taxon,” they wrote.
“Four of these specimens are complete or nearly so (Thermopolis, 11th, 12th, Chicago) and two are considered among the best-preserved known specimens (Thermopolis, Chicago).”
“In particular, the Chicago specimen was painstakingly prepared for scientific research leading to the retention of novel soft tissues that provide additional clues.”
The new analysis argues that Archaeopteryx was capable of at least limited powered flight.
The animal’s primary feathers show a degree of asymmetry that falls squarely within the range seen in flying birds today, and is absent in its close non-flying relatives.
Large tracts of so-called tertial feathers, which in modern birds bridge the gap between the body and the outer wing, are also present, closing off what would otherwise be an aerodynamic leak that prevents lift in non-avian relatives.
Rather than springing directly into the air like a pigeon, the scientists suggest, Archaeopteryx probably launched from elevated perches, ran into headwinds or climbed inclines while flapping its wings for assistance.
“As the oldest known bird, the most significant question is if and how Archaeopteryx could fly,” they wrote in the paper.
“Evidence favors limited powered flight in contrast to obligate gliding volant locomotion, although Archaeopteryx almost certainly also utilized gliding flight when energetically favorable, as observed in many living birds.”
Preliminary Archaeopteryx food web depicting probable omnivorous diet at various growth stages (eggs, immature, mature, and carcass) and how the animal would have provided trophic resources for other organisms as prey at all life stages including parasites and detritus feeders (scavengers). Image credit: Field Museum / NICE PaleoVisLab Studio / Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology / Samantha Clark.
One of the team’s more striking findings concerns the first toe, or hallux.
In non-flying theropod dinosaurs, the hallux points forward, is elevated above the ground, and is of limited use for gripping.
In Archaeopteryx, the hallux is reversed, pointing backward and opposing the other toes in a configuration that allows the foot to wrap around a branch or a rock.
“This suggests the reversed hallux evolved in response to flight as an adaptation for utilizing elevated perches,” the authors wrote.
Archaeopteryx’s diet remains more mysterious. No fossilized stomach contents have yet been found, but the skull and mouth offer tantalizing hints.
The animal possessed several birdlike feeding adaptations absent in most close dinosaur relatives, including structures interpreted as a primitive bill-tip organ — a sensory system that helps living birds manipulate food — along with evidence for a mobile tongue and oral papillae used in food handling.
Those traits suggest Archaeopteryx may have targeted small, energy-rich foods such as insects and seeds, perhaps reflecting the higher energy demands associated with flight.
The warm, seasonally dry environment of the Solnhofen archipelago, where it lived, would have favored an opportunistic omnivore able to exploit changing food supplies throughout the year.
“The Solnhofen climate was predominantly warm and dry with the flora being xeromorphic,” the paleontologists wrote in the paper.
“Fossils indicate the presence of occasional rain (wet season) producing temporary bodies of water.”
“This type of seasonal climate inhabited by Archaeopteryx may suggest an omnivorous diet, with variations in food resources throughout the year related to climatic changes.”
On the question of color, chemical analysis of the isolated holotype feather — interpreted as a dorsal wing covert — indicates it was black and white.
The entire plumage may have followed suit, forming a disruptive pattern that would have helped break up the animal’s outline against the open, scrubby landscape of the Solnhofen archipelago, confusing the gaze of predators.
An analysis of the eye’s scleral ring confirms Archaeopteryx was diurnal, active in bright light.
“As a result of its diverse locomotor behaviors Archaeopteryx would have interacted with numerous substrates in its environment, spending time on the ground, elevated on medium to large plants, and in the air,” the researchers concluded.
“Throughout its life history Archaeopteryx would have utilized varying food sources spanning the plant and animal kingdoms as well as provided trophic resources to a diversity of organisms from keratinophagous parasites to apex predators.”
“Key differences, explored in an ecological context, reveal how the appearance of flight in birds impacted both skeletal and soft tissue anatomy.”
The team’s paper was published on April 21, 2026 in the journal Discover Ecology.
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J.K. O’Connor & A.D. Clark. 2026. The ecology of Archaeopteryx. Discov. Ecol 2, 12; doi: 10.1007/s44396-026-00026-z
