Dinosaur True Colors Revealed for First Time , page 1

Pigments have been found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time, which helped scientist for the first time to reveal true colors of Dinosaurs.

Sinosauropteryx is the first fossil dinosaur to have its color scientifically established.

Here is the fossil picture:

The new study shows that these structures—visible in this fossil Sinosauropteryx as dark patches along the back and tail—are packed with melanosomes, pigment-carrying, sub-cellular structures found in the feathers of living birds but not in collagen.

This strengthens the argument that the fossil hairlike structures are protofeathers, an early stage in feather evolution before feathers had central shafts with vanes out to each side, as seen in modern birds.

Source:news.nationalgeographic.com...

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Image of Anchiornis huxleyi

Close-up image:

Fossil Image:

In the Beijing Museum of Natural History, the team behind the new study in Science, co-led by Yale University's Jakob Vinther, found an Anchiornis skeleton (pictured) preserved in an ochre-colored slab of mudstone.

With fossilized "protofeathers" bursting from the bones in every direction—and faint evidence of dark and light markings—the fossil was an ideal target for researchers seeking prehistoric melanosomes,pigment-bearing organelles within feathers.

The microscopic particles were first found preserved in a fossil—in this case, a prehistoric bird—by Vinther and his team in 2008. The particles had previously been interpreted in fossils as bacteria.

Source: news.nationalgeographic.com...