Archaeopteryx lithographica

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Time: Late Jurassic (~150 million years ago)

Region: Bavaria, Germany

Formation: Solnhofen Limestone

Coloration Data

Several studies have investigated the plumage coloration of Archaeopteryx. Based on the distribution of trace copper (a chemical biomarker for eumelanin), almost all flight feathers on the wing shared a consistent pattern: dark outer margins and noticeably lighter inner regions. In contrast, the upper wing coverts were entirely matte black, lacking any metallic or structural iridescence. Other parts of the body were not evaluated for coloration in these analyses.

Method: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to evaluate melanosome morphology in an isolated feather; Synchrotron Rapid Scanning X-ray Fluorescence (SRS-XRF) to map eumelanin biomarkers across the plumage of the articulated Berlin specimen (HMN 1880).

Publications

• Ryan M. Carney, Jakob Vinther, Matthew D. Shawkey, Liliana D'Alba & Jörg Ackermann (2012)
  The first study of the coloration of an isolated feather from Archaeopteryx.
• Ryan M. Carney, Helmut Tischlinger & Matthew D. Shawkey (2020)
  Re‑examination of an Archaeopteryx feather.
• Phillip L. Manning; Nicholas P. Edwards; Roy A. Wogelius; Uwe Bergmann; Holly E. Barden; Peter L. Larson; Daniela Schwarz-Wings; Victoria M. Egerton; Dimosthenis Sokaras; Roberto A. Mori; William I. Sellers (2013)
  A study of the coloration of the Archaeopteryx wing.
• 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

• Carney_2012.pdf (PDF)
  Article by Carney et al., 2012.
• Carney_2020.pdf (PDF)
  Article by Carney et al., 2020.
• Manning_2013.pdf (PDF)
  Article by Manning et al., 2013.
• 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