Colours and plumage if any

MooseJam

Do they just imagine the colourings and plumage if any or is there any way of knowing for sure ?

marco_polo

Certainly the plumage would be quite well known from fossilized feathers etc, however I believe the colours themselves are largely up to the illustrators imagination. Certainly looking at modern birds is a probably good enough reason to suppose that Dinosaurs were not at all drably coloured individuals.

Some research from a few years ago tantalisingly suggested that perhaps this knowledge will not always be beyond the realm of science.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/080708-fossil-color.html

marco_polo

The timing of this is uncanny, research by led by Michael Benton has determined the color of a dinosaurs feathers as well as those of an early bird for the first time using preserved melanosomes from the feathers. The two subject of the study were the therapod Sinosauropteryx and the bird Confuciusornis.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127134245.htm

The research found that the theropod dinosaur Sinosauropteryx had simple bristles -- precursors of feathers -- in alternate orange and white rings down its tail, and that the early bird Confuciusornis had patches of white, black and orange-brown colouring. Future work will allow precise mapping of colours and patterns across the whole bird.

Mike Benton, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Bristol, said, "Our research provides extraordinary insights into the origin of feathers. In particular, it helps to resolve a long-standing debate about the original function of feathers -- whether they were used for flight, insulation, or display. We now know that feathers came before wings, so feathers did not originate as flight structures.

Is this the first dinosaur illustration with fully accurate colouring? (of the tail in any case)

cherryghost

Noooooo!!!!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8481448.stm

Galvasean

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day. We finally know the colour of a dinosaur. Kudos professor Benton.

cherryghost

i dont see how having ginger feathers would enchance your display :pac:

marco_polo

More detailed two page coverage of this is Scientific American.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=colorizing-dinosaur-feathers

Galvasean

This story actually made the front page of the Indo (broadsheet only) and they dedicated a fairly large spot to it, focusing on the input of Dr. Patrick Orr of UCD.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-research-adds-colour-to-bird-ancestor-gingersaurus-2035816.html

Let's just hope it makes more sense than the last dinosaur related story featuring UCD that we reported here...

cherryghost

cherryghost wrote: »

i dont see how having ginger feathers would enchance your display :pac:

You know that I know where you work right! :mad::P

Galvasean

And another one Archiornis huxleyi:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Scientist+makes+colourful+discovery+winged+dinosaur/2525041/story.html

Aint he lovely?

Image by Michael A. Digiorgio

So that's two dinosaurs whose colour we know. Both of them ginger.

marco_polo

Galvasean wrote: »

So that's two dinosaurs whose colour we know. Both of them ginger.

Seems that Ginger was the old black. *

*Gets coat