Scientists have used a new proficiency to observe pigments in extinct brute , extending the timeframe that we can notice these compounds in fossils .
Biologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and North Carolina State University have recently describe the discovery of a 130 - million - twelvemonth - old bird fogey that contains biological compound that confirm the bearing of color .
The field was recently publish in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
The crow - sizedEoconfuciusornisbird was discovered in Early Cretaceous lake deposit in Hebei , Northern China . It ’s one of the early have it away birds to have a keratinous beak and no tooth , just like modern bird . Using multiple molecular and chemic analysis techniques , they describe paint - contain cell organelle , call melanosomes , on the shuttlecock ’s fossilized feathers .
antecedently , there was a problem with looking for melanosomes in fossilized animals . That ’s because it was very difficult to tell if the structures were melanosomes that belong to the animal in question or just microbes that came along during the fossilization process . So , the investigator turned their searchlight to the front of keratin .
" If these small bodies are melanosomes , they should be embedded in a keratinous matrix , since plume stop genus Beta - keratin , " study author Mary Schweitzer , from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences , said in astatement . " If we could n’t find the keratin , then those body structure could as well be microbes , or a mix of microbes and melanosomes – in either case , prediction of dinosaur shading would not be accurate . "
By using an immunogold labeling technique , they found evidence of the morphological protein beta - ceratin – a indisputable sign that the coloring belonged to the bird . This is also the oldest example of beta - ceratin compound ever discovered , suggesting they can last much longer than antecedently think .
Since it ’s now believed that many dinosaurs were feather , the discovery could have grownup conditional relation for the study of dinosaur coloration , as well as the organic evolution , habitat , and physiology of other prehistoric extinct creatures .
" This study is the first to demonstrate evidence for both ceratin and melanosomes , using structural , chemical and molecular methods , " sum up Yanhong Pan , associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences . " These method have the potential to help us understand – on the molecular story – how and why feathers germinate in these lineages . "
