UCC scientists make a new discovery about dinosaur colors

Scientists will be forced to rethink their theories about dinosaur colors after a discovery by an Irish team led by a university.

Research, conducted by Maria McNamara, paleontologist at University College Cork, discovered new sources of pigments. Scientists are reexamining how they are rebuilding the color of fossils of birds, reptiles and dinosaurs.

"It is absolutely essential to understand the origins of melanosomes in fossils if we want to produce accurate reconstructions of the colors of ancient animals." Dr. McNamara said:

The team studied the internal tissues of modern frogs with powerful microscopes and chemical techniques to show that internal melanosomes are very abundant.

"This means that these internal melanosomes could constitute the majority of melanosomes preserved in some fossils," said Mike Benton of the University of Bristol, who also collaborated on the project.

The team also used disintegration experiments and badyzed fossils to show that internal melanosomes can leak into other parts of the body during the process of fossilization, "like snowflakes in a globe of snow, "according to another contributor on the project, Patrick Orr from University College Dublin

. However, to differentiate between melanosomes of internal organs and skin.

"The size and shape of cutaneous melanosomes are usually distinct from those of internal organs," says Dr. McNamara

"This will allow us to produce more accurate reconstructions of the original colors of ancient vertebrates."

Many recent studies on the color of fossils have badumed that fossilized granules of melanin – melanosomes – come from the skin.

However, new evidence shows that other tissues – such as the liver, lungs and spleen – may contain melanosomes. The team used a unique chemical process for the detection of melanin in modern and fossil materials developed by collaborators Kazumasa Wakamatsu and Shosuke Ito of the Fujita University of Health in Japan.

Dr. McNamara was also badisted in his research by his doctoral student, Valentina Rossi, as well as an international team of paleontologists from Britain and Japan.

All details of the study will be published today in the journal Nature Communications