Unambiguous evidence of brilliant iridescent feather color from hollow melanosomes in an Early Cretaceous bird

Yanhong Pan; Zhiheng Li; Min Wang; Tao Zhao; Xiaoli Wang; Xiaoting Zheng

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwab227

Unambiguous evidence of brilliant iridescent feather color from hollow melanosomes in an Early Cretaceous bird

Natl Sci Rev. 2021 Dec 28;9(2):nwab227. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwab227. eCollection 2022 Feb.

Authors

Yanhong Pan¹, Zhiheng Li², Min Wang², Tao Zhao¹, Xiaoli Wang³, Xiaoting Zheng³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Centre for Research and Education on Biological Evolution and Environment and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, China.
² Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
³ Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, China.

Abstract

A unique form of melanosomes contributing to brilliant iridescent colors in modern bird feathers, previously unknown in fossil birds, is identified in the Early Cretaceous bird Eoconfuciusornis. The discovery highlights the complexity of plumage color nanostructures utilized early in bird evolution as far back as 130 million years ago.