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Blobrana


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Discovery that fossilisation distorts pigment structures casts doubt on reconstructed plumages.

Scientists have been trying to decipher the colours of feathered dinosaurs by studying pigmented structures called melanosomes in the animals' fossilised plumes. These studies have launched a Renaissance of correctly coloured dinosaur artwork, but a team of palaeontologists has now questioned the accuracy of these reconstructions.
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Blobrana


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Palaeontologist reveals insects' colourful past

An international research team led by a University of Bristol scientist has explained the preservation of colours in fossil insects for the first time.
The discovery explains why colours change and why they are destroyed during fossilisation, revealing hidden gems in the insect fossil record that could help reconstruct the evolution of colours in insects. 
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Blobrana


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Ancient moth sported a green sheen
 
The original colours of a fossilised moth have been brought back to life for the first time. Scientists have concluded that the 47-million-year-old insects once had a yellow-green sheen that warned predators of their foul taste and toxicity when they were exposed during feeding, and provided camouflage when they were resting.
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Blobrana


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Fossil beetles show true colours

At their brilliant best, the colours of beetles can make the insects look like they are made of some precious metal.
But when these beetles die and become fossilised, how much of that iridescent beauty is preserved?
It is a question that has been puzzling Dr Maria McNamara from Yale University.
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Blobrana


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Bird fossils reveal life's colourful chemistry

The pigments preserved in fossils, including a 120 million-year-old bird, have been revealed using X-rays.
A team, led by scientists from the University of Manchester, UK, scanned the beautifully preserved fossils.
Their study, published in the journal Science, revealed the chemical fingerprint of pigments that once tinted the ancient bird's feathers.
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Blobrana


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Fossil pigment
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X-rays illuminate fossil pigment
 
In the quest to probe ever deeper into fossil clues left behind by extinct animals, an international group of scientists has developed a new technique to detect hints of pigment left behind in fossilised feathers, skin and scales.
The non-destructive X-ray technique used powerful synchrotron-generated X-ray technology at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, to detect trace metals left behind by soft tissue. The technology could one day provide a window on mechanisms of camouflage and colour-based sexual selection that could have shaped the evolution of dinosaurs and other ancient animals.
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Blobrana


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A new study of a 150 million year old fossil of an Archaeopteryx has shown that remnants of its feathers have been preserved.
Archaeopteryx is regarded as a "missing link" which documents a fabulous transition from dinosaur to bird.
The researchers say that it may soon be possible to work out the colours of feathers sported by these creatures.
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Blobrana


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Hurdia victoria
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Hurdia victoria was originally described in 1912 as a crustacean-like animal. Now, researchers from Uppsala University and colleagues reveal it to be just one part of a complex and remarkable new animal that has an important story to tell about the origin of the largest group of living animals, the arthropods. The findings are being published in this week's issue of Science.
The fossil fragments puzzled together come from the famous 505 million year old Burgess Shale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in British Columbia, Canada. Uppsala researchers Allison Daley and Graham Budd at the Department of Earth Sciences, together with colleagues in Canada and Britain, describe the convoluted history and unique body construction of the newly-reconstructed Hurdia victoria, which would have been a formidable predator in its time.

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Blobrana


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Burgess Shale fossils
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The Burgess Shale is an exceptional Middle Cambrian age (about 540 million years ago) fossil locality located in Yoho National Park in the Rocky Mountains, near Field, British Columbia, Canada. The locality is special because of the soft-bodied preservation of a wide diversity of fossil invertebrate animals. The locality has been intensely studied since its discovery in 1909 by Charles Walcott, and has been declared a World Heritage Site. A popular introduction to the Burgess Shale can be found in Steven J. Gould's book, "Wonderful Life".

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Blobrana


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Scientists from the universities of Leicester and Cambridge and from the British Geological Survey have published new research in the journal Geology this month (November) shedding new light on a 500-million year old mystery.
The 500 million year-old fossils of the in Canada, discovered over a century ago, still provide one of the most remarkable insights into the dawn of animal life. The beautiful silvery fossils show the true nature of the life of that time, just after the "Cambrian explosion" of animal life.
Yet, their existence is a paradox: the fossils have been buried deep in the Earths crust and heated to over 300°C (~600 °F), before being thrust up by tectonic forces to form a mountainous ridge in the Rockies. Usually such extreme conditions are thought to destroy fossils. But, in the Burgess Shale the most exquisite detail of soft tissues has been preserved.
Now, by careful restudy of its fossils (published in the November issue of the journal Geology) Alex Page and his colleagues Phil Wilby, Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz, of the universities of Cambridge and Leicester and the British Geological Survey, have solved this riddle.
They have shown that as the delicate organic tissues of these fossils were heated deep within the Earth, they became the site for mineral formation. The new minerals, forged at these tremendous depths, picked out intricate details such as gills, guts and even eyes.
Once an ancient sea bed, the Burgess shale were formed shortly after life suddenly became more complex and diverse the so-called Cambrian explosion and are of immense scientific interest.
Normally, only hard parts of ancient animals became fossilised; the bones, teeth or shells. Soft parts were rarely preserved: many plants and invertebrate animals evolved, lived for millions of years and became extinct, but left no trace in the fossil record. The Burgess Shales preserved soft tissue in exquisite detail, and the question of how this came to happen has troubled scientists since the discovery of the fossils in 1909.

Source University of Leicester

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