Varying Diversity in Melanosomes (IMAGE)
Caption
The "rules" allowing color reconstruction from the shape of melanin-containing organelles originate with feathered dinosaurs, and are associated with an increase in melanosome diversity. However, fuzzy dinosaurs like T. rex and Sinosauropteryx show a pattern found in other amniotes like lizards and crocodilians in which a limited diversity of shapes doesn't allow color reconstruction. An explosion in the distribution of the shapes of melanin-containing organelles preserved in living taxa and the fossil record may point to a key physiological shift within feathered dinosaurs.
Credit
Li et al. (authors).
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