February 5, 2010
Dinosaurs, Now in Living Color
A restoration of what Anchiornis probably looked like in life. Illustration by Michael DiGiorgio (Courtesy Yale).
For the first time ever, paleontologists can look at dinosaurs in color.
In last week’s issue of the journal Nature, scientists described the discovery of melanosomes, biological structures that give feathers their color, in the wispy “dinofuzz” of the small theropod Sinosauropteryx. Not only did this provide unequivocal evidence that the dinosaur had a downy coat of feathers, but the presence of the microscopic structures provided scientists the potential to find out what color those feathers were.
When I read the Nature study I wondered how long it would be before scientists would be able to find a way to conclusively determine the colors of feathered dinosaurs from their preserved melanosomes. As it turned out, I would only have to wait a week. In this week’s issue of Science, a second team of scientists has restored a recently-discovered feathered dinosaur, Anchiornis huxleyi, in living color.
As described in last week’s study there are two major varieties of melanosomes: eumelanosomes (associated with black-grey shades) and phaemelanosomes (indicative of reddish to yellow tints). Both of these kinds of structures can be seen in the fossilized feathers of exquisitely-preserved dinosaurs, but the question is how they corresponded to the actual colors of the animal. The melanosomes cannot speak for themselves; they require a key to unlock what colors might have been present.
Acquiring that key was a two-step process. To figure out how melanosomes were distributed across the plumage of Anchiornis, the team behind the Science paper took 29 chips from different parts of a well-preserved specimen. Each chip had a different combination of melanosomes, and to translate these associations into colors the team turned to the closest living relatives of dinosaurs like Anchiornis, birds. By looking at how melanosomes create colors in these modern dinosaurs the scientists could determine how different mixes creates different tints and shades.
While the restoration of Anchiornis the team produced is still provisional, it is the first time that scientists have been able to hypothesize the full coloration of a dinosaur on direct fossil evidence. According to the new research, Anchiornis would have been mostly black with white accents on its wings (which it carried on both its arms and legs). Its head, however, would have been a little more brightly colored. It appears that Anchiornis had a burnt-orange headdress and freckles, possibly meaning that these bright colors played a role in communicating to other birds. (Which makes me wonder if, like modern birds, colors differed between the sexes.)
And this is just the start. In the past decade paleontologists have described dozens of species of feathered dinosaurs from hundreds of known specimens. There is a vast store of paleobiological information just waiting to be tapped, and it will literally change the way we see dinosaurs.
Li, Q., Gao, K., Vinther, J., Shawkey, M., Clarke, J., D’Alba, L., Meng, Q., Briggs, D., Miao, L., & Prum, R. (2010). Plumage Color Patterns of an Extinct Dinosaur Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1186290
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Does this take into account the effects of microstructures like that seen in peafowl?
Comment by Jared — February 5, 2010 @ 10:50 am
Could this kind of restoration be possible with the current specimens of Archeopteryx? Or is it preserved differently than the Chinese dinos?
Comment by Kaje — February 5, 2010 @ 11:51 am
Jared; The team only looked at melanosomes, but noted that there are other parts of feathers (like carotenoids) which also contribute to color. These would leave chemical signatures that the team did not investigate, but I assume that, as these techniques develop, they will be taken into account. I think the restoration is pretty solid, but I said it was “provisional” since scientists may yet find evidence of other traces that influenced color.
Kaje; Great question, but, unfortunately, I don’t think so. Even though both the dinosaurs from China and Archaeopteryx were preserved in exceptional circumstances there are differences in exactly how they were preserved. In the dinosaurs from China the feathers themselves were preserved (allowing for this kind of study) while in Archaeopteryx only the impressions of feathers were left behind. These impressions can tell us what kinds of feathers Archaeopteryx had and how they were arranged, but to tell what colors it was we would need the actual feathers to be preserved.
Comment by Brian Switek — February 5, 2010 @ 12:24 pm
I’m still confused about something.
“As described in last week’s study there are two major varieties of melanosomes: eumelanosomes (associated with black-grey shades) and phaemelanosomes (indicative of reddish to yellow tints).”
What causes cool colors like blue and green? Is that something that can still be assumed in these dinos, or can the researchers rule them out somehow?
Comment by Kaje — February 5, 2010 @ 12:54 pm
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Pingback by Kaje Reads Dinosaur Blogs, Squeals Like Little Girl « Kajed Heat — February 5, 2010 @ 1:07 pm
So, pardon my changing focus and (apparent?) ignorance, but why is it depicted standing on its hands? It’s weird and cool, but I thought theropods were supposed to keep their hands facing eachother?
Comment by Michael Stearns — February 5, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
[...] Dinosaurs, Now in Living Color [...]
Pingback by Check it out « Mors dei — February 5, 2010 @ 2:03 pm
Michael– I think you’re looking at the legs. The forelimbs are the wings.
Comment by Kaje — February 5, 2010 @ 5:40 pm
Kaje had an interesting question; I’m pretty sure it could, at least, theoretically, be demonstrated if we find structures similar to those of modern birds. Some independently derived characteristics which influence color may be unique to some groups of dinosaurs, so it may require considerable investigation, including possibly synthesizing the feather structure to see how light interacts with it. Cornell’s feather coloration page talks about the various structures involved in color to some extent:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/allaboutbirds/studying/feathers/color/document_view
Shawkey et al. discuss feather coloration in a bit more detail as well as reference a wide variety of pertinent research on the subject:
http://nature.berkeley.edu/~mshawkey/6.pdf
Comment by Jared — February 6, 2010 @ 1:50 am
Here is the answer to Kajes question.
Structural color in fossils has also been described by the Yale team earlier.
http://www.jakobvinther.com/Biol.%20Lett.-2010-Vinther-128-31.pdf
Comment by Dinofuzzz — February 6, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
Kaje; Another good question about blue and green. Those colors are relatively rare among birds, but when they are present it is due to pigments that can only be found chemically (something the researchers did not do in this study). The researchers behind both studies appear to be aware of this and I imagine that as work continues different teams will not only be looking for melanosomes, but for the chemical signatures of other colors.
Comment by Brian Switek — February 8, 2010 @ 6:39 am
Just imagine how AWESOME would it be if they discovered the T-Rex was pink!
Comment by Furble — February 14, 2010 @ 7:01 pm
I may be wrong on this one, but I think pink is a REALLY rare color for birds. Besides, I think the T-Rex did not have feathers, except possibly when still infant, so I don’t think we can use this method to determine it’s color. I’m guessing the T-Rex was probably dark red, dark green, brown or another common color.
Comment by Gesso — February 15, 2010 @ 1:40 am
C’mon, dude, can’t you have any fun? Leave the science alone for one second and imagine how cool would it be if there was a pink T-Rex walking around!
Comment by Furble — February 23, 2010 @ 5:13 pm
While I do see the appeal of imagining alternative realities, such as the now known to be incorrect dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, I love the fact that science is finally giving us answers on some things we have just guessed in the past decades. I thought you meant your commentary on a more serious note, I guess, and tried to talk about serious possible discoveries about the T-Rex. My apologies. But this IS the blog of the Smithsonian Mag, so you’d guess most people would hava a more scientific approach to things.
Comment by Gesso — February 24, 2010 @ 9:08 am
[...] understand how feathers were attached to the bodies of dinosaurs, and added to new findings about the colors of feathered dinosaurs, scientists will be able to bring the past to life like never [...]
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[...] Hues: Scientists have successfully recreated the colors of Anchiornis huxleyi, but Archosaur Musings warns against reaching broad conclusions about [...]
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Hi there,
Do you know of any writings and or texts that talk about how bird plumage colour combinations can be used in our own human colour preferences, (perhaps especially influential to us as young children)…….
Thanks in advance
Regards
Julian
Comment by Julian — December 12, 2010 @ 3:44 am
[...] the colors created by different combinations of these melanosomes in bird feathers, the researchers recreated the coloring of a recently discovered feathered dinosaur, Anchiornis huxleyi [...]
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