Original Post #2 - Dinosaur Colors!
Hi everyone! Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite topics - dinosaur colors! Most people know that we don’t know what color extinct dinosaurs were, because all we have are bones and skin imprints. However, because of recent advancements in paleontology, we now have a good idea of how some dinosaurs may have been colored!
The way we figure this stuff out is relatively simple. Using an electron microscope, scientists have found organelles called melanosomes in fossilized feathers and imprints. Melanosomes are found today in bird feathers, and control the pigment melanin. The size and shape of the melanosome dictates what color it produces, and so by looking at the fossilized melanosomes, we can get a general idea of what color the dinosaur might have been.
(Some modern melanosomes.)
Using this method, we’ve found the coloration of 4 different dinosaurs so far. The first of these was Anchiornis huxleyi, a tiny dinosaur from Late Jurassic China. By analyzing melanosomes and comparing to modern birds with similar colors, we think it looked something like this: (x)
Next up, Sinosauropteryx prima, a small theropod from the Early Cretaceous. We know it was mostly brownish-orange, with a stripy tail: (x)
Lastly, everyone’s favorite transitional fossil Archaeopteryx lithographica (top) and the extinct penguin Inkayacu paracasensis (bottom), which lived in Peru about 36 million years ago:
Last but not least, two other neat things we’ve learned from studying melanosomes: The small, four-winged dinosaur Microraptor had iridescent black feathers, just like a lot of birds do today; and Psittacosaurus, an early relative of Triceratops (this is, what, the third post that’s had Psittacosaurus in it?) used countershading, a camouflage technique that is very common among modern animals.
(Microraptor)
(Psittacosaurus)
Sources: (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)