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Re: Microraptor gets color « Reply #1 on Mar 9, 2012, 12:11am »
How cool!!!
Considering modern glossy-black birds (starlings, crows, ravens, grackles, etc) are quite social, I bet Microraptor was quite social as well.
The only part I don't get is this: "Spherical melanosomes tend to be reddish-brown, while rod-like ones are black or grey." Is that the only colors melanosomes can make, or at least be preserved in fossils? So there aren't melanosomes for yellow or blue?
Considering modern glossy-black birds (starlings, crows, ravens, grackles, etc) are quite social, I bet Microraptor was quite social as well.
The only part I don't get is this: "Spherical melanosomes tend to be reddish-brown, while rod-like ones are black or grey." Is that the only colors melanosomes can make, or at least be preserved in fossils? So there aren't melanosomes for yellow or blue?
There are no melanosomes for anything but brown, grey/black, and rusty red and pale yellow (see colors of mammal hair, chick down, etc.) Colors like red and yellow are made by caretinoids. Blue, green, purple etc. are made by irridescence alone.
If there were blue melanosomes, we could conceivably have blue-haired mammals. Blue melanosomes HAVE evolved in one type of frog and one type of fish, and green melanosomes have evolved in one type of bird (turaco), so it's not impossible, but very, very, very unlikely in most other theropods.
Note that this is a bit out of date. i've since heard that the biological pathways that allow birds to take carotenoids from their food and use it to color their feathers evolved only in neognahe birds. Anything more primitive than that probably could not have had bright red or yellow feathers aside from iridescent effects.
Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 55 Location: Angel Grove
Re: Microraptor gets color « Reply #7 on Mar 9, 2012, 6:43pm »
Amazing! I wouldn't mind a repaint of the Carnegie Microraptor - accuracy over style, in my book - but then the tail feathers would still be wrong. I say an entirely new sculpt is in order
If its tail touches the ground, I probably won't buy it. If its hands are facing the wrong way, I probably won't buy it. If it ought to have feathers and doesn't, I probably won't buy it. If it has vaned feathers attaching at its wrists, I probably won't buy it.
Unless it looks just like a Jurassic Park dinosaur
Amazing! I wouldn't mind a repaint of the Carnegie Microraptor - accuracy over style, in my book - but then the tail feathers would still be wrong. I say an entirely new sculpt is in order
It had at least one black feather. Only one feather was tested, unlike the Microraptor paper where numerous feathers were tested from various parts of the body.
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