THE PUNK ROCK COLORS of Pterosaurs!
In years past, paleontologists always said artists could paint dinosaurs pretty much any color because color doesn’t fossilize and “we just don’t know.” Remarkable nds and advances in analytical techniques are now adding color to dinosaurs and their Mesozoic kin. Consider one cousin to the dinosaurs, the pterosaur Tupandactylus imperator.
In a stroke of luck for paleontologists, this critter from the Brazilian Crato Formation of the Early Cretaceous
Period was preserved in something of a lagerstätte. A lagertätte is a ne-grained sedimentary deposit in which fossils exhibit exceptional preservation. In this case, that preservation is so exceptional that even so tissues from the head crest and tiny feather-like laments are visible. Delving deeper, researchers have found melanosomes within the skin and feather impressions. Melanosomes are responsible for color. e research team led by Aude Cincotta (Royal Belgian -Institute of Natural Sciences) reported in the journal Nature that they found several dierent melanosomes, indicating this critter was very likely brightly adorned with varied colorful patterns much like multi-colored birds of today.