A guide to the field of palaeo colour

Abstract

Melanin, and other pigments have recently been shown to preserve over geologic time scales, and are found in several different organisms. This opens up the possibility of inferring colours and colour patterns ranging from invertebrates to feathered dinosaurs and mammals. An emerging discipline is palaeo colour: colour plays an important role in display and camouflage as well as in integumental strengthening and protection, which makes possible the hitherto difficult task of doing inferences about past ecologies, behaviours, and organismal appearance. Several studies and techniques have been presented in the last couple of years that have described ways to characterize pigment patterns. Here, I will review the available methods and the likely applications to understand past ecologies. A golden age of colourized dinosaurs and other animals is now dawning upon us, which may elucidate the nature of ancient predator prey interactions and display structures.

New occurrences of fossilized feathers: systematics, taphonomy, and paleoecology of the Santana Formation of the Araripe Basin (Cretaceous), NE, Brazil

“…The light portions, were markedly preserved as imprintation. Those structures were previously interpreted as autolithified bacteria (Wuttke, 1983;Davis & Briggs, 1995), but subsequent studies revealed them as evidence of fossilized melanosomes (Vinther et al 2008;Zhang et al, 2010;Barden et al, 2011;Glass et al, 2012;2013;McNamara et al, 2013;Vitek et al, 2013;Barden et al, 2014;Li et al, 2014;Egerton et al, 2015;Vinther, 2015). This interpretation, enabled reconstructions of ancient color patterns of extinct animals, such as dinosaurs, birds, reptiles and fishes.…”

New occurrences of fossilized feathers: systematics, taphonomy, and paleoecology of the Santana Formation of the Araripe Basin (Cretaceous), NE, Brazil

“…The light portions, were markedly preserved as imprintation. Those structures were previously interpreted as autolithified bacteria (Wuttke, 1983;Davis & Briggs, 1995), but subsequent studies revealed them as evidence of fossilized melanosomes (Vinther et al 2008;Zhang et al, 2010;Barden et al, 2011;Glass et al, 2012;2013;McNamara et al, 2013;Vitek et al, 2013;Barden et al, 2014;Li et al, 2014;Egerton et al, 2015;Vinther, 2015). This interpretation, enabled reconstructions of ancient color patterns of extinct animals, such as dinosaurs, birds, reptiles and fishes.…”

Paleontology: Outrunning Time

“…An example of this in the present context is the use of synchrotron X-ray fluorescence and X-ray absorption techniques, which are capable of detecting trace metals (organically chelated copper) associated with melanins (Bergmann et al 2012) even after the melanosomes have been lost to dissolution. The problem is that organically chelated copper is not diagnostic of melanin, as other organic compounds common in nature (such as porphyrins which are common in feathers) are also capable of chelating copper (Vinther 2015).…”