Some coins present endangered species, and in fact that is one of the most popular commemerative themes, but not this coin.  In this case, the bird is dead and exinct.  In fact, it is fossilized road kill, maybe the most important roadkill we ever discovered.  In 2011, the German Republic issued a lovely proof coin celebrating the discovery of the Archaeopteryx  from the limestone quarries of Solnhofen area in Bavaria.  If you want to see something, I made a really beautiful website about this coin more than a few years ago, and there is no reason to repeat it.  Instead I can update is a bit with new images and its new slab.http://www.mrbrklyn.com/archeopteryx.htmlSince the time I created that page, I had a chance to get a MS in Comp Sci in a late life career change.  For the thesis I wrote a paper on computational mathmatics as it relates to Paleontology.  I took off and spent some quality time in the Canadian Bad Land of Drumheller Alberta and the Royal Tyrell Museum.  They have a terrific museum which I wrote extensively about http://images.mrbrklyn.com/2017_03_royal_tyrell_drumheller/IMG_1491.JPG?slideshow=3&width=1024http://www.mrbrklyn.com/calgary.htmlThe result of all this work was my thesis - which blew the mind of my preceptors and deans.  Nobody ever went to Long Island University before for a Masters in Computer Sciences and minored in Paleontology.    The thesis was cool