BBC Knowledge Asia Edition

Over time, we have come to

completely revise our understanding

of the appearance of dinosaurs, and much

of this began with the description of

another American dromaeosaur called

Deinonychus in the 1960s. John Ostrom

at Yale University made the revolutionary

suggestion that this species was a bird-like,

fast, warm-blooded pack hunter, and so

began the dinosaur renaissance of the

p

,

s

p yx, h f k f h d

FIRST STEPS

When faced with new fossils today,

palaeontologists have a much bigger

body of knowledge to draw upon when

creating reconstructions. In fact, our

knowledge has increased to the degree

that – somewhat miraculously – we can

tell the colours of the feathers of a range

of dinosaur species.

All dinosaur reconstructions begin with

p g

y g y

pp p

, n

even people are arranged – and start to

get a sense of the shape of the creature.

Complete dinosaur skeletons are,

however, very rare. The majority of fossil

specimens have bones missing, and a great

number of species are only known from a

fraction of the original skeleton. In these

cases, the bones of different specimens can

be compared to fill in the gaps, and if

there are parts of the skeletons that are still

unaccounted for, experts will often look

to related species of dinosaur for help

with the reconstruction.

Detailed knowledge of the anatomy of

a range of modern species (a field known

B k i , S x b

t fi

, r

f

Archaeopteryx d Mi r

• a e ad e co ou s
  de e ed oo
  T

o oss sed e a oso es

g

of f

li i bi d d l d

f

b bl d i Th

l i dibl h d

.

e y

p

Zebra finches have round

‘phaeomelanosomes’ in the orange part

of their feathers and sausage-shaped

‘eumelanosomes’ in the black parts. A

team led by Mike Benton at the

University of Bristol used this technique

to look at the downy feathers along the

head, neck and back of the fossilised

Sinosauropteryx. They found that this

carnivore was ginger with white stripes

down its tail.

S l n

w a s o o eas e C a

Evidence of feathers can be seen in the fossilised
remains of the carnivore
O O

O

S/

S

O

S O , SC

C

O O

, SC

C

SOC

,

U

Y

h

e

nd

,

d

.

n

began thebegan the ‘dinosaurdinosaur renaissance renaissance’ ofof th thee All dinosaur reconstructions begin with

1960s and 70s. Ostrom championed the

idea that birds were dinosaurs, and was

spectacularly vindicated when

Sinosauropteryxx, the first known feathered

dinosaur, was found in China in 1996.

All dinosaur reconstructions begin with

their fossilised bones. If palaeontologists

are lucky enough to have found a fairly

complete skeleton, they can arrange thes

bones into theee appropriate order – based

on how the bones of birds, crocodiles an

Back in 2010,Sinosauropteryxx became

the first dinosaur to be illustrated in its

true colours. Since then, other

feathered dinosaurs – including

ArchaeopteryxxandMicroraptor

• have had their colours
  determined too.
  This extraordinary detective
  story began with the discovery
  of fossilised melanosomes.
  These are the tiny packages

of pigment inside feathers and hair in

living birds and mammals, and are

responsible for making your hair black

brown, blond or ginger. These

melanosomes are incredibly tough, and

under the right conditions can survive

hundreds of millions of years in fossils.

When you look at the feathers of a

living bird under a high-powered

electron microscope, you can see

melanosomes of different shapes.

Sinosauropteryx lived around 126 million years ago in

what is now northeastern China

PH

OT

O:

JIM R

OBIN

S/

UNIVER

SITY

OF BRI

ST

OL

,^ SC

IEN

CE PH

OT

O LIBRARY

,^ SC

IEN

CE &

SOC

IETY

, YALE

UNIVERSI

TY,

ED SCHIP

UL,

ALAM

Y, T

HE ROYAL SOCIET

Y

THE KEY

EXPERIMENT

Dinosaurs weren’t just green and black. Recent research allowed scientists

to unveil the true colours of one of these prehistoric animals

HOW DO WE KNOW?