Bird Pigment Detection

[Scylla]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/science/05obbird.html?_r=1&ref=science

New way to tell what color your Confuciusornis (did I spell that right?) is.

[bmorefossil]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/science/05obbird.html?_r=1&ref=science

New way to tell what color your Confuciusornis (did I spell that right?) is.

Awesome we are comparing pigments to celebrities.

[Bullsnake]

I watched a show on Nat. Geo. last night called 'Jurassic CSI'. Don't know if it corresponds with this or not.

It was really interesting, and I believe it is a series. The website shows it airing next Thursday, though.<Twilight Zone theme playing here>

Although it is WAY above and beyond my limited scientific knowledge, or lack thereof, I was wondering if the technique of finding the elements that comprise the pigments wouldn't be corrupted after decay, and millions of years of mineral replacement.

However, as I said, it is very interesting and intriguing.

[Auspex]

Avian plumage is pretty complicated; the colors we see on a living bird can be feather pigments, or feather structure. In North America, reds and yellows are pigment colors, while blues and greens are (with very few exceptions) structural, with the colors being created by refraction. Blue Bird and Blue Jay feathers have no blue pigment! (they are grey; hold one so that you are looking through it into the light, and you will see this yourself). Red and yellow pigments in feathers are carotenoids that are metabolized, with "two-birds-with-one-stone" efficiency, into the feathers. Non-migratory tropical birds do have blue and green pigment, and the reason(s) for the difference have not been convincingly explained.

A large reason for the plumage patterns we see is that birds feathers grow in "tracts"; unlike hair on a mammal which is pretty evenly distributed, large areas of a bird's skin are naked (overlapping of feathers creates the fully-clothed appearance). Pigments, and refractive properties, tend to be distributed (or not) by the topography of the feather tracts. Patterns on individual feathers are examples of pigment creation being turned off and on during growth of the feathers.

If we assume that the genetics controlling this were already in play by the Early Cretaceous, then every small breakthrough in forensic technique give us much to chew on!

[Scylla]

If we assume that the genetics controlling this were already in play by the Early Cretaceous, then every small breakthrough in forensic technique give us much to chew on!

The genetic control of morphogenesis was in play well before the early cretaceous, these are usually homeobox genes that control such elements and they are very well conserved throughout the tree of life. In other words, the genes that controlled the feather patterning probably predated the feathers !