Artist’s impression of Archaeopteryx sporting its new pigmentation
12 Jun 2013 The first complete chemical analysis of feathers from Archaeopteryx, a famous fossil linking dinosaurs and birds, reveals that the feathers of this early bird were patterned - light in colour, with a dark edge and tip to the feather - rather than all black, as previously thought. The findings came from X-ray experiments by a team from The University of Manchester, working with colleagues at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The scientists were able to find chemical traces of the original 'dinobird' and dilute traces of plumage pigments in the 150 million-year-old fossil. "This is a big leap forward in our understanding of the evolution of plumage and also the preservation of feathers,” said Dr Phil Manning, a palaeontologist at The University of Manchester and lead author of the report in the June 13 issue of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry (Royal Society of Chemistry). Only 11 specimens of Archaeopteryx have been found, the first one consisting of a single feather. Until a few years ago, researchers thought minerals would have replaced all the bones and tissues of the original animal during fossilisation, leaving no chemical traces behind, but two recently developed methods have turned up about the dinobird and its plumage. The first is the discovery of melanosomes - microscopic 'biological paint pot' structures in which pigment was once made, but are still visible in some rare fossil feathers.
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