Colour Dino...iridescent

LONDON - It is a question that has baffled the greatest scientific minds - and those of the average 7-year-old - what colour were dinosaurs?

A breakthrough in fossil examination has sparked a race to discover an answer that may satisfy scientists and crayon-wielders.

A team headed by Professor Derek Briggs, of Yale University, found that tiny fossilised structures were carbon deposits called melanosomes, which indicate the colour pattern of modern birds' feathers. Initially the team could identify only black or white bands but now they can see the structure responsible for iridescence or colour sheen.

After examining fossilised feathers from Messel in Germany, Briggs says the creature that sported the feather was black with a "strongly lustrous iridescent blue, green or coppery sheen".

He added that although only dark blue and reddy browns can be identified at the moment, analysing the same deposits in modern birds and butterflies should open the way to identifying yellows, blues and oranges.

"We may be able to work out the colour of extinct mammals. Now that the technique is known the race is on."

- INDEPENDENT