It is very hard to tell what color was a dinosaur from looking at its fossilized bones. In the past, experts have basically guessed what color ancient animals were as colors are rarely preserved in fossils. But recent discoveries of color-producing structures in fossil insects and feathers are helping scientists solve this mystery and learn about the evolution of color and its role in communication.

 

Pigments were found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time in 2010. The discovery may prove once and for all that dinosaurs' hairlike filaments—sometimes called dino fuzz—are related to bird feathers.

 

The 2010 study identified fossilized melanosomes pigment-bearing organelles—in the feathers and filament-like "protofeathers of fossil birds and dinosaurs from northeastern China.

 

These earlier findings proved it was possible for melanosomes from dinosaur times to survive in fossils.

 

Using modern insects and feathers, scientists have conducted experiments to measure the effects of pressure, temperature and chemicals on colors to see if and how they change over time.

 

They then examine fossils using powerful electron microscopes and identify which fossils have accurately preserved their colors. This will help scientists identify important changes in the evolution of color and how it was used by animals in the past.