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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.

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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.