According to a new study from researchers at Lund University in Sweden, fossilized remains from three extinct ancient reptiles that lived in the sea show what color their skin might have been.
According to a new international study including researchers from Lund University in Sweden, fossilized remains from three extinct ancient reptiles that lived in the sea show what color their skin might have been.
Any artistic rendering of a dinosaur or other prehistoric animal takes liberties with the color of the skin or fur, but now thanks to a new discovery, the color of three extinct ocean dwelling animals might be more accurately depicted.
Skin pigments from a mosasaur, dated at 85 million years ago, a leatherback turtle from 55 million years ago, and an ichthyosaur from 193 million years ago were fossilized and preserved, and now they are being used by researchers to recreate what the prehistoric animals probably looked like.
Skeletal remains make up most of the fossil record, however when researchers analyzed dark areas on the remains, they found that it wasn’t bacteria from decomposition as previously thought, but skin tissue containing the chemical pigment melanin.
An artist’s drawing of the three animals shows them with dark skin, based on data from the study.
Adaptive benefits of having darker skin include camouflage at greater depths in the ocean, and it would have allowed the reptiles to heat up their bodies faster by absorbing more sunlight.
