Thread by @PteraGlen, Hey! Did you know that you can sometimes tell what COLOR an [...]

Hey! Did you know that you can sometimes tell what COLOR an animal was from a fossil?

#FossilFriday #scicomm #paleontology

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📷" title="Kamera" aria-label="Emoji: Kamera"> Sam Ose @ Inner Mongolia Museum

Hey! Did you know that you can sometimes tell what COLOR an animal was from a fossil? #FossilFriday #scicomm #paleontologyhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

Sam Ose @ Inner Mongolia Museum" title="Hey! Did you know that you can sometimes tell what COLOR an animal was from a fossil? #FossilFriday #scicomm #paleontologyhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📷" title="Kamera" aria-label="Emoji: Kamera"> Sam Ose @ Inner Mongolia Museum" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

This is #Sinosauropteryx prima! It& #39;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!

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📷" title="Kamera" aria-label="Emoji: Kamera"> @Paleocreations

This is #Sinosauropteryx prima! It& #39;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!https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

@Paleocreations" title="This is #Sinosauropteryx prima! It& #39;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!https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📷" title="Kamera" aria-label="Emoji: Kamera"> @Paleocreations" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

In fact, these #protofeathers are so well preserved that you can see the #organelles inside them with an electron microscope!!!

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔬" title="Mikroskop" aria-label="Emoji: Mikroskop">

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

https://www.cell.com/current-b... class="Emoji" style="height:16px;" src=" https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📷" title="Kamera" aria-label="Emoji: Kamera"> @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& #39;re often in direct sunlight. With this in mind we can infer that S. prima lived out in the open too!

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📷" title="Kamera" aria-label="Emoji: Kamera"> @LantingFrans

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& #39;re often in direct sunlight. With this in mind we can infer that S. prima lived out in the open too!https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

@LantingFrans" title="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& #39;re often in direct sunlight. With this in mind we can infer that S. prima lived out in the open too!https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📷" title="Kamera" aria-label="Emoji: Kamera"> @LantingFrans" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

Oops, forgot to mention the stripey tail. It was very stripey

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