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Dinosaur fossil is the first to show evidence of countershading (type of camouflage)

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GK86

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Surrounded by hungry predators, a little plant-eating dinosaur from the early Cretaceous did the only sensible thing. It donned camouflage.

Analysis of the exquisitely preserved fossil remains has revealed one of the most elaborate dinosaur paint jobs ever seen, including a brown back and a lighter belly. Modern-day antelope, fish and other animals have similar dark-and-light zones, which confuse predators, but this is the first discovery of such markings on a dinosaur.

“This one is unique,” says paleontologist Jakob Vinther of Britain’s University of Bristol, co-author of a study describing the fossil published in the journal Current Biology. “We can very clearly see that there are color patterns … stripes, spots.”

This particular Psittacosaurus lived some 120 million years ago in what is now China. It was not a safe neighborhood. Local predators included Yutyrannus, a T.-rex-like giant weighing a ton or more, and a smaller T. rex relative named Dilong.

Psittacosaurus’s dark back and lighter belly, visible on the specimen’s remaining scales, could have helped it stay out of a hungry carnivore’s claws. Modern-day predators rely on an object’s shading to assess its shape, Vinther explains, and when prey is darker on top than on the bottom, a color scheme known as countershading, shadows are minimized and the animals look flatter.

The dinosaur’s dark pigments probably served other purposes as well. Dark stripes on the inside of its legs may have warded off insects, like the slashes adorning the legs of modern-day zebras. And spots on the outside of the front legs could have hardened the skin, thanks to the toughening qualities of pigment molecules.

Other scientists say that given the difficulty of reconstructing extinct animals and their environments, the new study makes a good case that this animal turned to camouflage.

“It’s no surprise” that a dinosaur should do so, paleontologist David Hone of Britain’s Queen Mary University of London says via email. But “it is very important as it shows that these patterns really were present. … That gives confidence we will find more, and then can start to see how things change over time.”

The new results are “very cool,” says paleontologist Gareth Dyke of Hungary’s University of Debrecen, who has found that the extinct reptiles known as mosasaurs had dark backs and may have had light bellies. What’s interesting, Dyke says, is “the variety of different colors seen on this single fossil. We don’t see that, as far as I know, in many, if any other, fossil dinosaurs.”

Feathered dinosaurs are known to have boasted beautifully colored plumage, but Vinther argues that this specimen had scales, not feathers. And that makes this Psittacosaurus the clear winner in its division of the dinosaur beauty contest.
 

Schrade

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When they say exquisitely preserved fossil they really meant it. Wow at the details in that thing.

I want a bigger image!
 
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