2014-01-09, 12:30
Fossil pigments reveal the colors of ancient sea monsters
During the Age of the dinosaurs, huge reptiles, such as mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, ruled the seas. Previously, scientists could only guess what colors these spectacular animals had; however, pigment preserved in fossilized skin has now been analyzed. The unique soft tissue remains were obtained from a 55 million-year-old leatherback turtle, an 85 million-year-old mosasaur and a 196–190 million-year-old ichthyosaur. This is the first time that the color scheme of any extinct marine animal has been revealed.
http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/science...170723.htm
During the Age of the dinosaurs, huge reptiles, such as mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, ruled the seas. Previously, scientists could only guess what colors these spectacular animals had; however, pigment preserved in fossilized skin has now been analyzed. The unique soft tissue remains were obtained from a 55 million-year-old leatherback turtle, an 85 million-year-old mosasaur and a 196–190 million-year-old ichthyosaur. This is the first time that the color scheme of any extinct marine animal has been revealed.
http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/science...170723.htm