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Experiment Will Determine Dinosaur's Skin Color

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-color-is-my-dinosaur dept.

AchilleTalon writes "One of the only well preserved dinosaur skin samples ever found is being tested at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron to determine skin color and to explain why the fossilized specimen remained intact after 70-million years. University of Regina physicist Mauricio Barbi said the hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period (100-65 million years ago), was found close to a river bed near Grand Prairie, Alberta."

3 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Quite interresting by Silpher · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Because this could also determine if they were feathered or not. No need for spectacular skin if feathered and probably need for colored skin if not feathered.
    Disclaimer: Not an expert

    1. Re:Quite interresting by Webs+101 · · Score: 5, Informative
      It's unlikely that this creature had feathers. Feathers are only known in Coelurosauria, which is a subset of theropods that, for example, includes Tyrannosaurus but not Allosaurus.

      The hadrosaur under study is an ornithischian - a very, very distant relative that's more closely related to Stegosaurus and Triceratops. Psittacosaurus, a primitive horned dinosaur, did have tail bristles, but they appear to have been decorative for display and not feather-like at all.

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  2. The color of their skin????? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Instead of knowing the color of their skin, I would be more interested in knowing the content of their character.