Extinct colours

A problem for those reconstructing a world long gone (paleontologists, trying to reconstruct extinct life forms) is the fact that their reconstructed world tends to be in black an white. Sure there are colour reconstructions - many, in fact. But colours are sophisticated guesses inthe best case, based on the world of today. We can imagine the colour of an extinct seabird, perhaps, to be greyish and white beneath. That is functional and many sea birds ghave that today. But the colour of a dinosaur or a trilobite is less easy to guess. And who would have guesses the colour pattern of a malayan tapir or an okapi or giraffa, only having bones at hand?

It is very interesting therefore that scientists have been able to show that certain pigments fossilize. Paleontologists at Yale have been able to analyse pigmentation in a 100 million year old bird feather (Lower Cretaceous, Brasil). They could see the striped pattern of the fossil woodpecker, caused by the pigment melanine. Similar patterns were found on an Eocene bird from Denmark. (see http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708182536.htm). This opens possibilities for looking for melanine in more fossils.
Perhaps feathered dinosaurs and even other animals long extinct will cet colours and patterns. New techniques give a thrilling insight in lost worlds.