Lighting the Past: X-Ray Analyses Reveal True Colors of Extinct Animals

In order to discover the true colors of ancient animals, scientists are using X-rays to closely examine the chemical details of modern bird feathers.

The researchers were able to map elements that make up pigments responsible for red and black colors in feathers. They hope to use this information to find traces of the same pigments in fossil specimens of extinct animals, such as dinosaurs.  The team published their results in the journal Scientific Reports.

This latest discovery means that scientists may be able to go beyond monochrome in their depictions of fossilized creatures, and make steps towards portraying their colors more accurately. Melanin is the dominant pigment in mammals and birds that gives them either a black/dark brown color, for example in ravens, or a reddish/yellow hue, as in foxes. The black pigment is called eumelanin, while the reddish type is pheomelanin.Scientists were able to map the chemical environments of two different types of melanin, a pigment responsible for black/dark brown or reddish/yellow color in feathers. This illustration shows an American kestrel feather (left), and the X-ray fluorescence maps of zinc (shown with a red filter), calcium (blue) and benzo-sulfur (yellow) in the same feather. The researchers will use the information provided by these maps to identify melanin in fossil specimens.