I mean, if some would find the sceleton of a turkey a few million years from now, he would probably never assume that it had a wattle, or probably even feathers.
In: Biology
Sometimes the fleshy bits make markings on the bones that can indicate their composition and structure.
Sometimes the fossil itself will contain the equivalent of a fossilized wattle or feathers.
Otherwise, they just guess based on similar animals, either in the fossil record where there might be more info on soft tissues or from current analogues.
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