Newswise reports that melanin is retained during fossilization of mammals:
“We have now studied the tissues from fish, frogs, and tadpoles, hair from mammals, feathers from birds, and ink from octopus and squids,” said Caitlin Colleary, a doctoral student of geosciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech and lead author of the study. “They all preserve melanin, so it’s safe to say that melanin is really all over the place in the fossil record. Now we can confidently fill in some of the original color patterns of these ancient animals.” …
The researchers said microscopic structures traditionally believed to be fossilized bacteria are in fact melanosomes — organelles within cells that contain melanin, the pigment that gives colors to hair, feathers, skin, and eyes.
I wonder if this can be combined with modern scanning techniques for high volume processing.
(h/t Michael Graham Richard @ Treehugger.com)
