Reconstructing carotenoid-based and structural coloration in fossil skin
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Date
2016-03-31
Authors
McNamara, Maria E.
Orr, Patrick J.
Kearns, Stuart L.
Alcalá, Luis
Anadón, Pere
Peñalver, Enrique
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Elsevier
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Abstract
Evidence of original coloration in fossils provides insights into the visual communication strategies used by ancient animals and the functional evolution of coloration over time [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Hitherto, all reconstructions of the colors of reptile integument and the plumage of fossil birds and feathered dinosaurs have been of melanin-based coloration [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Extant animals also use other mechanisms for producing color [8], but these have not been identified in fossils. Here we report the first examples of carotenoid-based coloration in the fossil record, and of structural coloration in fossil integument. The fossil skin, from a 10 million-year-old colubrid snake from the Late Miocene Libros Lagerstätte (Teruel, Spain) [9, 10], preserves dermal pigment cells (chromatophores)—xanthophores, iridophores, and melanophores—in calcium phosphate. Comparison with chromatophore abundance and position in extant reptiles [11, 12, 13, 14, 15] indicates that the fossil snake was pale-colored in ventral regions; dorsal and lateral regions were green with brown-black and yellow-green transverse blotches. Such coloration most likely functioned in substrate matching and intraspecific signaling. Skin replicated in authigenic minerals is not uncommon in exceptionally preserved fossils [16, 17], and dermal pigment cells generate coloration in numerous reptile, amphibian, and fish taxa today [18]. Our discovery thus represents a new means by which to reconstruct the original coloration of exceptionally preserved fossil vertebrates.
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Keywords
Dermal chromatophores , Anolis-carolinensis , Marine reptiles , Preservation , Lizard , Pigmentation , Melanosomes , Chemistry , Dinosaurs , Pattern
Citation
McNamara, M.E., Orr, P.J., Kearns, S.L., Alcalá, L., Anadón, P. and Peñalver, E. (2016) ‘Reconstructing carotenoid-based and structural coloration in fossil skin’, Current Biology, 26(8), pp. 1075–1082. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.038.