Paleontologists are used to drab brown and gray fossils. Sediments that seep in to cast the shape of ancient organisms in stone, determine the color. Instead, long-gone beasts and the ancient worlds they inhabited, spring to life in the depths of these scientists' imaginations.

Now under exceptional circumstances, scientists have uncovered and explained a 50-million-year-old beetle fossil that still retains the bright blue metallic hue it sported in life. This beetle and others from the same site, are very rare examples of fossils that retain any original color, and are the oldest colored fossils ever found.

The specimen is a "paleontological Rosetta stone" said Andrew Parker, lead researcher behind the find, and evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford in England. The fossil beetle may be the key to analyzing and predicting the color of other well-preserved invertebrate fossils, fish scales and even bird and dinosaur feathers, that have not retained any original coloration, he said.

Full Article LINK