Shangyang sp.

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Time: Early Cretaceous (~120 million years ago)

Region: Liaoning Province, China

Formation: Jiufotang Formation, Jehol Biota

Coloration Data

The coloration of the cranial crest plumage in specimen IVPP V26899 was investigated. The densely packed, asymmetric nanostructural lattice of rod-shaped melanosomes found in the crest feathers was evaluated using optical simulations. The calculations demonstrated that this nanostructure generated iridescent structural coloration that shifted markedly depending on the viewing angle: at lower angles of incidence (≤30° relative to the surface normal), the plumage appears dark, whereas at angles between 40° and 70°, the reflected wavelength spectrum shifts progressively from red to blue.

Method: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) optical modeling.

Publications

• Zhiheng Li, Jinsheng Hu, Thomas A. Stidham, Mao Ye, Min Wang, Yanhong Pan, Tao Zhao, Jingshu Li, Zhonghe Zhou, Julia A. Clarke (2025)
  A study of the coloration of the crest of Shangyang.

Documents and files

• Li_et_al_2025.pdf (PDF)
  Study of the crest coloration in Shangyang.

Reconstructions

Fossils