How do we know what color dinosaurs were if all flesh has decayed?
In: Biology
In most cases, we can’t. We just have to make educated guesses based on their lifestyle, environment, and closest living relatives (i.e. crocodiles and birds).
In a few rare instances, fossils (usually of feathers, but sometimes of skin) can preserve pigment structures called melanosomes which can be analyzed and interpreted. Sometimes this tells us the color, sometimes it just tells us an animal had spots or stripes.
For instance, since c. 2012 we have known that archaeopteryx’ feathers were black.
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