The Thermopolis specimen

Not sure. For one thing, Archeaopteryx is European. Anyways, it could be an extremely close cousin. Or like the dinosaur Torvosaurus. An American and European species. That's the best I could come up with.

Asian and European friend :) They were connected at the time

You just said Asian, that's why I mentioned Europe. Anyways, I still can't come up with another reason.

Hey there, thought I'd clarify a little: All existing full body-specimens of [i]Archaeopteryx[/i] have been found in Tithonian (Upper Jurassic) Lithographic Limestone sediments of the Solnhofen-area of Southern Germany. Because there are only 11 specimens plus one fossil feather they all got names, depending on where they were excavated or are displayed. The Thermopolis-specimen is just called that way because it is displayed in Thermopolis. The Berlin specimen is displayed in Berlin, Germany, the London specimen is displayed in London and so on. The Daiting specimen was found in a quarry in Daiting, Southern Germany. Funnily enough, there are some teeth from a coal mine in Portugal dating back to the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) that are attributed to [i]Archaeopteryx[/i] sp., but as the teeth of small coelurosaurians are all quite similar the primary description could be wrong. The publication describing the Thermopolis specimen can be found here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/310/5753/1483 Cheers, The_Captn