Anchiornis huxleyi

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Time: Late Jurassic (~160 million years ago)

Region: Liaoning Province, China

Formation: Tiaojishan Formation

Coloration Data

In Li et al. (2010), 29 plumage regions of specimen BMNHC PH828 were examined, reconstructing the animal's coloration through melanosome analysis, excluding the tail and non-feathered parts of the body (see artistic reconstruction). Subsequently, in a study by Lindgren et al. (2015), researchers found no pheomelanin — the pigment responsible for reddish coloration — in the crest of Anchiornis huxleyi specimen YFGP-T5199. However, the authors note that due to differences in size and slight anatomical variations, this specimen may represent a different ontogenetic stage, reflect sexual dimorphism, or even belong to a distinct, closely related species of feathered dinosaur.

Method: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to examine melanosome morphology and density, followed by comparison with those of extant birds. Mass spectrometry for molecular composition analysis.

Publications

• Quanguo Li, Ke-Qin Gao, Jakob Vinther, Matthew D. Shawkey, Julia A. Clarke, Liliana D'Alba, Qingjin Meng, Derek E. G. Briggs, Richard O. Prum (2010)
  Publication in the journal Science (2010). Reconstruction of dinosaur coloration by analyzing fossil melanosomes.
• Johan Lindgren, Peter Sjövall, Ryan M. Carney, Aude Cincotta, Per Uvdal, Steven W. Hutcheson, Ola Gustafsson, Ulysse Lefèvre, François Escuillié, Jimmy Heimdal, Anders Engdahl, Johan A. Gren, Benjamin P. Kear, Kazumasa Wakamatsu, Johan Yans & Pascal Godefroit (2015)
  Mass spectrometry of specimen YFGP-T5199. The presence of eumelanin in the dinosaur’s crest has been confirmed, but pheomelanin has not been detected.
• Arindam Roy, Michael Pittman, Evan T. Saitta, Thomas G. Kaye, Xing Xu (2020)
  An overview article on the paleo‑coloration of amniotes.
• Jakob Vinther (2015)
  An overview of methods for reconstructing paleo‑coloration.

Documents and files

• Li_et_al_2010.pdf (PDF)
  Publication by Li et al. (2010) in Science. First color reconstruction of Anchiornis huxleyi.
• Lindgren_et_al_2015.pdf (PDF)
  Article on the molecular composition of Anchiornis plumage.
• Roy_et_al_2020.pdf (PDF)
  Review article on amniote paleocolor in Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
• Vinther_2015.pdf (PDF)
  Review article on fossil color reconstruction.

Reconstructions

Fossils

Size comparison