Color My prehistoric World

William Atkins
Wednesday, 09 July 2008 18:46

Science - Biology

According to Science News magazine, “Michael Benton, a paleontologist at the University of Bristol in England, says it’s “amazing” that the stripes seem to reflect the original patterns in the animal’s feathers. It will now be interesting to find out the exact chemical composition of the fossilized granules, he says.” [Science News (subscription required): “Fossils, now available in color”]

The article in Science News adds, “The fossils may not contain any actual melanin, Vinther says, since most organic matter breaks down before fossilizing. However, he says, “melanin is very resistant to degradation,” and his team is now attempting a chemical analysis of a few micrograms of the material to find out if some has survived intact.”

Based on this study, scientists should now be able to look for other colors of melanin within fossils of insects, reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals, including humans.

The preservation of color through such fossils may in the future help scientists reconstruct more physical (and behavioral) characteristics of extinct animals.

Their results will be published in a future issue of the journal Biology Letters.

This article is based on the July 8, 2008 article “Fossil Feathers Preserve Evidence of Color, Say Yale Scientists” by Yale University.