Palaeontology

Scientists reveal color of prehistoric bats

By T.K. Randall
September 29, 2015

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) While there is much we can learn about dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures from their fossil remains, one of the most difficult things to determine is what color they all were.

Most of the artwork that exists of dinosaurs and other ancient beasts leaves the coloration up to the interpretation of the artist, but now scientists have been able to use the fossil remains of a prehistoric species of bat to determine what color its fur actually was.

"Well, the bats are brown," said paleobiologist Jakob Vinther. "It might not be a big surprise, but that's what these 49-million-year-old bats are. So they looked perfectly like modern bats."The revelation isn't exactly surprising, however similar techniques could be used in the future to reveal the coloration of species that are no longer around such as the dinosaurs.

"Biologists know a lot about living animals because of color: what sort of environment they live in, how they protect themselves or how they attract mates," said paleobiologist Caitlin Colleary.

"But since so little is preserved in the fossil record, the color of extinct animals has always been left up to artists' interpretations, and important information regarding behavior has been inaccessible."

For all we know dinosaurs were multicolored with bright stripes - right now we simply can't tell.

Source: Yahoo! News

Tags: Bats, Fossil, Color