3. Study Offers an Insight Into Dinosaur Colors

Source:

Zimmer C. Study Offers an Insight Into Dinosaur Colors. The New York Times [Internet]. 2010 Jan 27 [cited 2010 Jan 30]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/science/28dino.html?ref=science

Evidence from a study has found possible coloring for dinosaurs. Pictures of Dinosaurs usually are colored, however, these colors are usually dependent on the artist's interpretation. Actual colors of dinosaurs are not known. Dinosaur fossils consist of bones, small traces of skin and possibly “feather”. Michael Benton from the University of Bristol conducted a study on dinosaur feathers and found that dinosaur “feathers” were very similar to bird feathers. This research was based on an earlier work on fossilized ink sacks in squid which match modern squid ink sacks melanosomes. Melanosomes are responsible for color in feather, thus, the researchers observed the melanosomes in the dinosaur feather fossils and modern bird feather fossils to gain clues about dinosaur colors. The relationship between dinosaurs and birds is a hot topic that stems from research from the 1970’s. There are many paleontologist who argue that dinosaurs have simple feather structures which are the precursor to modern bird feathers. However, there are many skeptics that do not accept this argument. Observing the melanosomes on the tail feathers of Sinornithosaurus, scientist found two different melanosomes that correlate to grayish black colors and reddish colors. Although this is an interesting new finding, nothing was published because the data was insufficient due to the amount of samples available.