Showing their true colours: Chemical clues in modern birds could reveal what the dinosaurs REALLY looked like
- Scientists developed a technique to look for pigments in fossil feathers
- They found chemical markers that indicate traces of a red or yellow colour
- Looking for these in fossils could help reveal the colours of the dinosaurs
- Many dinosaurs had feathers and some think even Tyrannosaurus rex did
They may be somewhat less terrifying than their dinosaur relatives that stalked the Jurassic period, but modern birds may hold the secret to unravelling what their reptilian ancestors looked like.
Scientists have developed a new technique that may finally allow them to determine the colour of fossilised feathers and perhaps even scales of extinct creatures.
The research used high-powered X-rays to detect long-lived chemical fingerprints that are associated with the pigments in feathers.
Scientists have developed a technique they say will allow them to work out the colour of fossilised feathers. It will allow them for the first time to determine what colour feathered dinosaurs were. Some researchers believe Tyrannosaurus rex even had feathers (illustrated)
They say looking for these in fossils will finally allow them to work out the colours of bird-like dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx, Velociraptors and relatives of the giant Tyrannosaurs rex.
It might reveal whether these feathered-dinosaurs used camouflage to blend into their surroundings or were coloured with garish displays to attract mates.
The results will also provide clues about the colours seen in other theropod dinosaurs, which are ancestors of modern birds.
Professor Phil Manning, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester who was one of the authors of the new study, said: 'The avian descendants of dinosaurs have kept the chemical key to unlocking colour precisely in their feather chemistry.'
The researchers used powerful X-rays to look for traces of chemicals left by pigments in the feathers of modern birds of prey (the images above illustrate some of the chemicals)
The researchers analysed feathers shed by modern birds of prey using X-rays from the Diamond Light Source laboratory.
They found that the trace metal zinc bonds to sulphur compounds in a specific way in feathers that have contained a pigment called pheomelanin, which gives animals a reddish or yellow hue.
By searching for traces of these compounds in fossilised feathers, it will be possible to see whether they contained any of this pigment, which is a type of a family of molecules known as melanin.
'Melanin is a very important component in biology, said Dr Nick Edwards, lead author of the study at the University of Manchester, which is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The scientists found a pigment that gives modern bird feathers a redish or yellow hue (left) is associated with certain zinc and sulphur compounds. Searching for these in the fossils of feathered dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx (right) could reveal what colour they once were
'But its exact chemistry is still not precisely known, especially as to how metals such as calcium, copper and zinc interact with it.
'Here we have used a new approach to probe these components of melanin and have found that there are subtle but measurable differences between the different types of melanin with regards to certain elements.'
Professor Roy Wogelius, a geochemist at the University of Manchester and lead author of the study, added: 'A fundamental rule in geology is that the present is the key to the past
'This work on modern animals now provides another chemical "key" for helping us to accurately reconstruct the appearance of long extinct animals.'
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