Dinosaur Colouration
Dinosaur colour is one of the unknowns in the field of paleontology as skin pigmentation is nearly always lost during the fossilization process. However, recent studies of feathered dinosaurs have shown that we might be able to infer the colour of some species through the use of melanosomes, the color-determining pigments within the feathers. Feathered dinosaurs ''Anchiornis'' In 2010, paleontologists studied a well-preserved skeleton of ''Anchiornis'', an Paraves, averaptoran from the Tiaojishan Formation in China, and found melanosomes within its fossilised feathers. As different shaped melanosomes determine different colors, analysis of the melanosomes allowed the paleontologists to infer that ''Anchiornis'' had black, white and grey feathers all over its body and a crest of dark red or ochre feathers on its head. Another specimen was reported to possess melanosomes which induced grey and black coloration, but none that suggested red or brown coloration. ''Sinosauropteryx'' ...
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