To the chagrin of dinosaur fans everywhere, skin colour generally doesn’t survive fossilization. But a new analysis of fossilized skin from three ancient sea-going reptiles – an icthyosaur, a mosasaur and a sea turtle – may have changed that by providing strong chemical evidence of the pigment melanin. Interestingly, the icthyosaur appears to have been uniformly dark, unlike many sea creatures today which are dark on top on light on the bottom.
Original research article published in Nature on January 8, 2014
Names and affiliations of selected authors:
Johan Lindgren, Lund University, Sweden
