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Description
requested Archaeopteryx, and since contemporary Compsognathus was also requested, I originally intended to make a piece showing the two together, interacting in some way, and while I have some ideas, I'm not entirely sure how to portray it composition-wise at this point. Anyways, I decided to do an Archaeopteryx portrait, and pay homage to an old paleomeme; bald-headed Archaeopteryx (I guess the new meme for this genus is depicting it as entirely black because we found one black feather). This palaeoart meme came about because one specimen seemingly showed a bald head while all of the body feathers were preserved. We know now that that Archaeopteryx's head was quite fully feathered, and it was an artifact of preservation that made us think otherwise. So why is this one bald? They're molting.

Description
requested Archaeopteryx, and since contemporary Compsognathus was also requested, I originally intended to make a piece showing the two together, interacting in some way, and while I have some ideas, I'm not entirely sure how to portray it composition-wise at this point. Anyways, I decided to do an Archaeopteryx portrait, and pay homage to an old paleomeme; bald-headed Archaeopteryx (I guess the new meme for this genus is depicting it as entirely black because we found one black feather). This palaeoart meme came about because one specimen seemingly showed a bald head while all of the body feathers were preserved. We know now that that Archaeopteryx's head was quite fully feathered, and it was an artifact of preservation that made us think otherwise. So why is this one bald? They're molting.