Archaeopteryx (meaning “ancient wing” in Greek) was a genus of small, bird-like dinosaurs from the late Jurassic Period that inhabited what is now Europe. Despite the extinct creatures’ differences from today’s birds,

"Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine I would be able to study one of the best specimens of this iconic species."

The Field Museum has added a new fossil to its collection, calling it the museum’s most important fossil acquisition since Sue the T. rex. An Archaeopteryx, it has feathers, hollow bones, a long tail and 50 teeth — and is the earliest known avian dinosaur,

An exquisitely preserved fossil of the earliest-known bird Archaeopteryx, a pigeon-sized specimen revealing new anatomical details of a creature whose 19th century discovery lent support to Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution,

But that’s where the Field Museum’s then-chief dinosaur scientist found himself in the spring of that year — accompanied by a small group that had flown in from Chicago, there to meet a businessman from the Middle East.