Color My prehistoric World

William Atkins
Wednesday, 09 July 2008 18:46

Science - Biology

According to a Yale University research study, color pigments from organic matter in a 100-million-year old fossilized feather may now give scientists the ability to know the real colors of now-extinct animals.


U.S. paleobiologist Jakob Vinter, a graduate student from Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut), along with Yale paleontologist Derek E.G. Briggs, Yale ornithologist Richard O. Prum, and Yale doctorial student Vinodkumar Saranathan, analyzed this ancient feather with the use of a scanning electron microscope.

They state it likely came from a long-ago extinct bird or dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous period (a period beginning about 146 million years ago, when many dinosaurs lived).

Their important study of the black-striped feather found well-preserved remnants of pigment (actually fossilized melanosomes, or small sub-cells containing melanin pigment) that is similar to melanin in the modern feathers of a woodpecker.

Melanin is a class of compounds found in plants and animals. It is the primary pigment that produces skin color in humans, and is also found in hair, iris (eye), and other places on and inside  the body.
 
The black carbon-rich microscopic granules of fossilized feather was discovered in Brazil within South America.

Vinther states, "Birds frequently have spectacularly colored plumage which are often used in camouflage and courtship display. Feather melanin is responsible for rusty-red to jet-black colors and a regular ordering of melanin even produces glossy iridescence."

He continues, "Understanding these organic remains in fossil feathers also demonstrates that melanin can resist decay for millions of years."

Vinther adds, "Many other organic remains will presumably prove to be composed of melanin.” [Science Daily: “Fossil Feathers Preserve Evidence Of Color, Say Scientists”]

He hopes to be able to find melanin in further studies involving fur and skin, not just feathers.

Page two discusses the importance of this study and what future studies might involve. Please read on.