Dinosaur had ginger feathers
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By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News |
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Meet Sinosauropteryx, a very spiky little dinosaur.
A team of scientists from China and the UK has now revealed that the bristles of this 125-million-year-old dinosaur were in fact ginger-coloured feathers.
The researchers say that the diminutive carnivore had a “Mohican” of feathers running along its head and back. It also had a striped tail.
The team revealed details of the dinosaur’s coloured feathers in an article published on Nature’s website.
Excerpt from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8481448.stm
Quotes and info obtained from article.
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An article published on Nature’s website has claimed that they have determined the color of the dinosaur Sinosauropteryx. As in the picture above, the article claims that the dinosaur possessed rusty red feathers. The authors used melanosomes in the feathers to determine this. “A ginger-haired person would have more spherical melanosomes,” said Professor Mike Benton from the University of Bristol, UK, who led this study. “[A] black-haired or grey-haired person would have more of the sausage-shaped structures.”
I’ve heard a few arguments about the ability to determine the color of a long-dead animal, and thought this (and the forum) would be a good place for the discussion of this. I am tentatively leaning towards the color argument, but this is purely dependent on how accurate the studies on the relationship melanosomes and colors. Don’t forget to visit the forum for further discussion.
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