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Hey! Did you know that you can sometimes tell what COLOR an animal was from a fossil?
#FossilFriday #scicomm #paleontology
Sam Ose @ Inner Mongolia Museum
#FossilFriday #scicomm #paleontology
Sam Ose @ Inner Mongolia Museum
This is #Sinosauropteryx prima! It's one of many amazing #fossils that have come from Liaoning, China. Its name means "Chinese lizard wing," and it was the first dinosaur outside of avialae (birds and immediate relatives) to be found with #feathers!
@Paleocreations
@Paleocreations
In fact, these #protofeathers are so well preserved that you can see the #organelles inside them with an electron microscope!!!
Researchers were able to compare the color producing organelles of S. prima to those of living birds to determine its color!
Researchers were able to compare the color producing organelles of S. prima to those of living birds to determine its color!
The result? It was #CounterShaded - dark on the back, light on the belly, and had a dark stripe over its eyes. The darker feathers were chestnut or reddish brown!
Read more: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)31197-1
@Fiann_Smithwick
Read more: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)31197-1
@Fiann_Smithwick
The border between light and dark was sharp and fairly high up. This type of #countershading is seen in modern animals that live out in the open where they're often in direct sunlight. With this in mind we can infer that S. prima lived out in the open too!
@LantingFrans
@LantingFrans
Oops, forgot to mention the stripey tail. It was very stripey
