What color were dinosaurs really? Bat fossils reveal clues.
For the first time ever, researchers studying fossils have discovered extinct mammal鈥檚 true colors.
The scientists studied two species of bats, Palaeochiropteryx and Hassianycteris, who lived along a lake in a tropical forest in Germany in the聽Eocene Epoch, 56 million to 33.9 million years ago.
In their study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Bristol and Virginia Tech examined bat fossils that were so excellently preserved that .
Skeptics had previously assumed that melanosomes in other well-preserved fossils were just bacteria. But molecular paleobiologist Jakob Vinther of Britian鈥檚 University of Bristol and his team have confirmed for the first time that the structures contained melansome remnants, not bacteria, by studying the microchemistry of the fossils.
Why are melansomes so exciting?
Melansomes contain melanin, the pigment that gives certain colors to skin, fur or hair, and scientists can use the size and shape of melanins to determine their original color.
鈥淭his means that the correlation of melanin colour to shape is an ancient invention, which we can use to easily determine colour from fossils by ,鈥� Dr. Vinther explains in a University of Bristol press release.聽
鈥淧eople had questioned whether you could use the shape of the melanosome to tell anything about the color, because it鈥檚 been through a lot. Millions of years in the ground is ,鈥� Cailtin Colleary, a Ph.D. student in geological studies at Virginia Tech University and the study鈥檚 lead author told The Atlantic.
鈥淪o by finding traces of the chemical melanin in association with these structures, we鈥檝e basically confirmed that you can use the shapes of the melanosomes themselves to tell what color something was,鈥� she said.
So what color were these bats? Drum roll please鈥�.
鈥�,鈥� Vinther told Reuters. 鈥淚t might not be a big surprise, but that鈥檚 what these 49-million-year-old bats are. So they looked perfectly like modern bats.鈥�
And while paleontologists are not surprised by their finding, they say it鈥檚 nice to finally know for sure.
鈥淪ince so little is preserved in the fossil record, the color of extinct animals has always been left up to artists鈥� interpretations, and important information regarding behavior has been considered inaccessible,鈥� Ms. Colleary told Reuters.
What can an animal's color tell you about the species' behavior? Important stuff, like what type of environment the animals lived in, how they attracted mates, or how they protected themselves against predators, says Ms. Colleary.
鈥淔or complex animal life, color is a factor in how individuals recognize and respond to others, determine friend or foe, and find mates,鈥� said MIT geobiologist Roger Summons, in a Virginia Tech press release. 鈥淭his research provides another thread to . Color recognition was an important part of that process, and it goes far back in the history of animals.鈥�
鈥淚 think we鈥檙e just scratching the surface in our ability to extract information like this from the fossil record,鈥� adds Colleary. 鈥淎s technology continues to advance, we鈥檒l keep finding information in fossils that we don鈥檛 even know is there today.鈥�
[Editor's note: An earlier version mischaracterized the findings.]
