A new exhibition to open at the High Desert Museum Oct. 14 will feature art, displays and fossils of the Archaeopteryx, considered the first bird by paleontologists.

The exhibition, “Dinosaurs Take Flight: The Art of Archaeopteryx,” will include more than 50 pieces of original artwork, murals, sculptures, interactive displays and a collection of fossils from the Solnhofen limestone in Germany, where Archaeopteryx lived 150 million years ago, according to a release from the museum.

Fossils of the Archaeopteryx, from the Greek words meaning “ancient wing,” were found in 1861 and provided a “critical bridge between dinosaurs and birds and have sparked the understanding of the origin of birds and flight” according to the museum’s executive director Dana Whitelaw.

Six paleo-artists from around the world worked with scientists to depict what the “raven-sized dinosaur” looked like, according to the release. The exhibition, which will run through April 4, 2018, will begin with an exclusive preview at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 13, free to museum members and $5 for guests. Nick Famoso, chief of paleontology and museum curator at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, will speak at 7 p.m. and 7:40 pm. on examples of evolution where organisms evolved similar features despite being unrelated, the release said.

To RSVP for that event, visit highdesertmuseum.org/events/dinosaurs.

Other events to coincide with the exhibit will continue through the fall: The Origin and Evolution of Feathers and Flight will take place at 6 p.m. on Nov. 2 and will offer a talk on research into the evolution of flight and feathers and the challenges of paleontological research. A Night at the High Desert Museum will provide a family-friendly sleepover for kids ages 5-13 and their adult chaperons from 5 p.m. Nov. 3 to 9 a.m. Nov. 4. And from 10:30 a.m. to noon Nov. 18, the museum will host an event for young artists called How Dinosaurs Came to Fly: Drawing on the Clues.

For more information and pricing for each event, call the museum at 541-382-4754, ext. 241 or visit highdesertmuseum.org/calendar.