IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v463y2010i7284d10.1038_nature08740.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fossilized melanosomes and the colour of Cretaceous dinosaurs and birds

Author

Listed:
  • Fucheng Zhang

    (Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China)

  • Stuart L. Kearns

    (University of Bristol)

  • Patrick J. Orr

    (UCD School of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland)

  • Michael J. Benton

    (University of Bristol)

  • Zhonghe Zhou

    (Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China)

  • Diane Johnson

    (Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK)

  • Xing Xu

    (Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China)

  • Xiaolin Wang

    (Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China)

Abstract

Ginger group dinosaurs A series of striking 'feathered dinosaur' fossil discoveries from the Cretaceous Jehol Group sediments of China has revolutionized thinking about the evolution and diversity of dinosaurs and early birds. But it has been suggested that some of the structures that are not obviously feathers might actually be strands of collagen from under the skin. Zhang et al. refute this notion by demonstrating the presence in these structures of melanosomes — the characteristic bodies that give feathers their colours. Not only do they show that the feather-like structures of dinosaurs such as Sinosauropteryx really are akin to feathers, but also they can speculate in an informed way about their colour — which it seems was reddish brown or ginger.

Suggested Citation

  • Fucheng Zhang & Stuart L. Kearns & Patrick J. Orr & Michael J. Benton & Zhonghe Zhou & Diane Johnson & Xing Xu & Xiaolin Wang, 2010. "Fossilized melanosomes and the colour of Cretaceous dinosaurs and birds," Nature, Nature, vol. 463(7284), pages 1075-1078, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:463:y:2010:i:7284:d:10.1038_nature08740
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08740
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08740
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature08740?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tiffany S. Slater & Shosuke Ito & Kazumasa Wakamatsu & Fucheng Zhang & Peter Sjövall & Martin Jarenmark & Johan Lindgren & Maria E. McNamara, 2023. "Taphonomic experiments reveal authentic molecular signals for fossil melanins and verify preservation of phaeomelanin in fossils," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:463:y:2010:i:7284:d:10.1038_nature08740. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.