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American Museum of Natural History
Course: American Museum of Natural History > Unit 1
Lesson 2: How do scientists study dinosaurs?- Where in the world did dinosaurs live?
- Where in the world did dinosaurs live?
- Did dinosaurs travel in herds or packs?
- Did dinosaurs travel in herds or packs?
- How fast were dinosaurs?
- Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
- Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
- How fast did dinosaurs grow, and how long did they live?
- How fast did dinosaurs grow, and how long did they live?
- What was dinosaur skin like?
- What color were extinct dinosaurs?
- What color were extinct dinosaurs?
- What were the biggest and smallest dinosaurs?
- Did dinosaurs fight?
- How did dinosaurs reproduce?
- How intelligent were dinosaurs?
- New research points to dinosaurs' colorful past
- New dinosaur research: Microraptor's feather color revealed
- Quiz: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
- Exploration Questions: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
- Answers to Exploration Questions: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
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What color were extinct dinosaurs?
In 2008, researchers discovered microscopic structures, called melanosomes, within fossilized feathers of an ancient bird. Different kinds of melanosomes create different colors in the feathers. Following this discovery in 2010, two teams of researchers reported finding melanosomes preserved in feathers of two, small, Chinese, non-avian dinosaurs—Sinosauropteryx and Anchiornis. A comprehensive study of Anchiornis revealed that this 155-million-year-old, feathered dinosaur, about the size of a chicken, possessed black-and-white striped wings and a rusty brown crest of feathers along the top and back of its skull. Created by American Museum of Natural History.
Video transcript
We really don't have a lot of evidence
about what color dinosaurs were, except in the sense that it wouldn't
surprise me if they were quite colorful, and the reason because of that is that
dinousars in all likelihood saw in color. Mammals are usually pretty drab animals,
because that there's only a couple of mammals, basically ourselves chimps and
gorillas, which actually seen in color. All other mammals Just see in black and white, so consequently that they're pretty drab. Birds are brilliantly colored because
that they do see in color and its likely because birds are a kind of dinosaur, that
the extinct dinosaurs as well saw in bright vivid color, so it's likely that either through, to recognize each other
as the same species or for defense or lots of other sorts of things. That they
were likely colored also.