Dinosaur coloration

Dinosaur coloration is generally one of the unknowns in the field of paleontology, as skin pigmentation is nearly always lost during the fossilization process. However, studies of feathered dinosaurs and skin impressions have shown the colour of some species can be inferred through the analysis of colour-determining organelles known as melanosomes that are preserved in fossilized skin and feathers.

Feathered dinosaurs

Anchiornis

In 2010, paleontologists studied a well-preserved skeleton of Anchiornis, an averaptoran from the Tiaojishan Formation in China, and found melanosomes within its fossilized feathers. As different shaped melanosomes determine different colours, analysis of the melanosomes allowed the paleontologists to infer that Anchiornis had black, white and grey feathers all over its body and a crest of dark red or ochre feathers on its head.

In 2015, another specimen was reported to possess melanosomes that induced grey and black coloration, but no red or brown coloration. This may have been due to sexual dimorphism, differences in testing methods, or a different age or species of the second specimen tested.

Archaeopteryx

In 2012, Ryan Carney and colleagues produced the first colour study on an Archaeopteryx specimen. Fossilized melanosomes suggested a primarily black coloration in the feathers of the specimen. The feather studied was likely a covert, which would have partly covered the primary feathers on the wings. Carney pointed out that this is consistent with the flight feathers of modern birds, in which black melanosomes have structural properties that strengthen feathers for flight.