Scientists Complete Color Palette Of Anchiornis Huxleyi
Writing in the latest issue of Science, researchers say they have identified the vibrant colors that adorned Anchiornis huxleyi, a feathered dinosaur extinct for 150 million years. The discovery may add weight to the idea that dinosaurs first evolved feathers not for flight but for purposes such as sexual selection. Researchers closely examined 29 feather samples from the dinosaur and measured melanosomes (cellular organelles that contain melanin) within the feathers. A statistical analysis of how those melanosomes compared to the types known to create particular colors in living birds allowed scientists to discern with 90 percent certainty the colors of individual feathers and, therefore, the colorful patterns of an extinct animal. read more