Comments on: Dinosaurs, Now in Living Color

By: Top Scientific Breakthroughs of 2010 « Gleeful Spiritual Cove of Heavenly Booty!

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:07:42 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Julian

Julian — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 08:44:45 +0000

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

By: Giant Penguin Fosile Sikur Feathers Red | Albanian News And Articles

Giant Penguin Fosile Sikur Feathers Red | Albanian News And Articles — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 01:06:49 +0000

[...] e cila ka lejuar ata që të identifikojnë vestiges lashtë e ngjyrës në të shpendëve dhe dinosauri pupla . Të paktën disa nga ngjyrim të puplave të shpendëve vjen nga strukturat mikroskopike të [...]

By: X-Rays Give a New Look at Archaeopteryx | Dinosaur Tracking

X-Rays Give a New Look at Archaeopteryx | Dinosaur Tracking — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:52:06 +0000

[...] months alone, paleontologists have described how they have used laboratory techniques to determine what color some feathered dinosaurs might have been, how Archaeopteryx grew, how feathers were arrayed around [...]

By: Blog Carnival #19: New Blogs, Ichythyosaurs, Bacteria, Comic Strips and More... | Dinosaur Tracking

Mon, 03 May 2010 14:49:41 +0000

[...] Hues: Scientists have successfully recreated the colors of Anchiornis huxleyi, but Archosaur Musings warns against reaching broad conclusions about [...]

By: A New Use for Blacklights: Finding Dinosaur Feathers | Dinosaur Tracking

A New Use for Blacklights: Finding Dinosaur Feathers | Dinosaur Tracking — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:25:35 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Gesso

Gesso — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:08:28 +0000

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.

By: Furble

Furble — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:13:06 +0000

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!

By: Gesso

Gesso — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:40:29 +0000

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.

By: Furble

Furble — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:01:20 +0000

Just imagine how AWESOME would it be if they discovered the T-Rex was pink!

By: Brian Switek

Brian Switek — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:39:09 +0000

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.

By: Dinofuzzz

Dinofuzzz — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:59:42 +0000

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

By: Jared

Jared — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:50:55 +0000

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

By: Kaje

Kaje — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:40:24 +0000

Michael– I think you’re looking at the legs. The forelimbs are the wings.

By: Check it out « Mors dei

Check it out « Mors dei — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:03:39 +0000

[...] Dinosaurs, Now in Living Color [...]