Specimens of Archaeopteryx colouration and patterning of the plumage cannot be drawn with certainty from this study. In 2011, graduate student Ryan Carney and colleagues performed the first colour study on an "Archaeopteryx" specimen with the fossil of this single feather. Using scanning electron microscopy technology and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, the team was able to detect the structure of melanosomes in the fossil. The resultant structure was then compared to that of 87 modern bird species and was determined with a high percentage of likelihood to be black in colour. While the study does not mean that "Archaeopteryx" was entirely black, it does
Archaeopteryx be related particularly closely to "Anchiornis" and "Xiaotingia", which were recovered as basal troodontids instead. Agnolín and Novas (2013) found "Archaeopteryx" and (possibly synonymous) "Wellnhoferia" to be the basalmost avialans (Avialae being defined by the authors as including "Archaeopteryx lithographica" and "Passer", their most recent common ancestor and all of its descendants), with Microraptoria, Unenlagiinae, and the clade containing "Anchiornis" and "Xiaotingia" being successively closer outgroups to the Avialae. Another phylogenetic study by Godefroit, "et al.", using a more inclusive matrix than the one from the analysis in the description of "Eosinopteryx brevipenna", also found "Archaeopteryx" to be a member