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The accuracy of colour correct dinosaur pictures has been called into question, thanks to a study investigating how fossilisation affects pigment.
The idea of being able to accurately predict colouration is rooted in a project by Jakob Vinther, a molecular palaeobiologist at the University of Bristol. Vinther used analysis of organelles associated with pigment in fossil specimens to work out which colours were displayed as a result.
Maria McNamara, also of the University of Bristol, simulated how pigments in bird feathers are affected by fossilisation using an autoclave (a pressurised container generating high temperatures).
She concluded that the organelles, known as melanosomes, shrank and that Vinther's colour predictions may not be accurate as a result. McNamara advises care until colouration is better understood. "These results demonstrate that reconstructions of original plumage colouration in fossils where preserved features of melanosomes are affected by diagenesis should be treated with caution."
However, Vinther disputes the implication, saying that he was aware of the effects of fossilisation on melanosomes and the results don't significantly affect the artist's impressions of the dinosaurs. "It could have an effect if we [eventually] want to discriminate between a reddish-brown and a slightly less reddish-brown," says Vinther as reported by journal Nature, "but we're not near those sorts of assessments."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
