Palaeontologists in Brazil have studied the head of a pterosaur named Tupandactylus imperator, andclaim to have found “simple and branched feathers” on the back of its crest. They examined these with an electron microscope and found they contained various shaped melanosomes – tiny vesicles containing the pigment melanin. Variation in the shape of melanosomes is […]
Parrots discarded dull colours, claim scientists, according to Inside JEB 17 June 2020 and Journal of Experimental Biology, published online 17 June 2020, doi:10.1242/jeb.225912. Most birds colour their feathers by producing a mix of two types of melanin pigment – eumelanin, which produces black and grey, and pheomelanins, which produce browns, reds and yellows. Birds […]
Snowshoe hares go brown in Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 21 June 2018 and Science, 22 June 2018, doi: 10.1126/science.aar5273. Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) that live in regions with snowy winters change the colour of their fur from brown to white at the beginning of winter, and back to brown during the summer. The change […]
Blue Aussie budgerigar gene found, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 5 October 2017 and Cell, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.016, 5 October 2017. Budgerigars are small Australian parrots that are commonly kept as pets. In the wild they are mostly green with a yellow head and throat, but a variant with a blue body […]
Best Ever Ankylosaur found, according to reports in BBC News, Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 3 August 2017 and Current Biology doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.071 published online 3 August 2017. Scientists at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Canada have studied the fossil of an exquisitely preserved Ankylosaur, a squat short legged vegetarian dinosaur covered with thick scales […]
White tiger gene found, according to reports in ScienceNOW, BBC News, ScienceDaily and Current Biology doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.054 23 May 2013. White Bengal tigers have white fur with black stripes, rather than the normal orange fur with black stripes. Although they have been found in the wild in the past, they now only seem to exist […]
Grey horse gene found, according to EurekAlert 20 July 2008 and ScienceNOW, 21 July 2008. Grey horses are born with black, brown or chestnut coloured coats but begin to lose their colour early in life, and are often completely white by the age of eight. Although their hair turns white, the skin remains pigmented, in […]