Revealing the colour of 50-million-year-old animals

A new research study shows that pigment (colour) in extinct animals can be preserved for over 50 million years. Despite their old age, the pigment molecules correspond closely to the equivalent pigment in modern-day animals. “With the help of the molecules, we now have a time machine that enables us to revisit and study ancient animals with the same precise instruments and tools that we use to study living animals”, says Per Uvdal, Professor of Chemical Physics at Lund University and MAX-lab in Sweden. Today we imagine dinosaurs and other ancient animals as perhaps green or brown. But what did they actually look like? It was mostly pure guesswork until a couple of years ago when what looked like traces of pigment were found in very well-preserved feathers from a fossil of a small dinosaur. The question was whether it really was pigment or something completely different, like bacteria. Until now there has been a lack of strong evidence for the preservation of pigment across geological periods.