這個具有4000萬年歷史的羽毛化石(如上圖)有著彩虹色，就像在浮油和現(xiàn)代鳥類與昆蟲中看到的一樣,。
據(jù)美國《科學(xué)》雜志在線新聞報道,，彩虹色是一些根據(jù)視角來變化顏色的表面所具有的特征,。科學(xué)家指出,，這一效果是由保存在化石——發(fā)現(xiàn)于德國的Messel Shale——中的納米結(jié)構(gòu)所形成的,。美國耶魯大學(xué)的科學(xué)家利用電子顯微鏡對這些羽毛化石進(jìn)行了分析，并發(fā)現(xiàn)了具有黑色素結(jié)構(gòu)的光滑表層。這種表層使得羽毛能夠隨著不同的視角而散射出綠色,、藍(lán)色或紫銅色,。研究人員日前在《生物學(xué)快報》網(wǎng)絡(luò)版上報告了這一發(fā)現(xiàn)。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Biology Letters August 26, 2009, doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0524
Structural coloration in a fossil feather
Jakob Vinther1, Derek E. G. Briggs1,3,*, Julia Clarke4, Gerald Mayr5 and Richard O. Prum2,3
1Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
3Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
4Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
5Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Investigation of feathers from the famous Middle Eocene Messel Oil Shale near Darmstadt, Germany shows that they are preserved as arrays of fossilized melanosomes, the surrounding beta-keratin having degraded. The majority of feathers are preserved as aligned rod-shaped eumelanosomes. In some, however, the barbules of the open pennaceous, distal portion of the feather vane are preserved as a continuous external layer of closely packed melanosomes enclosing loosely aligned melanosomes. This arrangement is similar to the single thin-film nanostructure that generates an iridescent, structurally coloured sheen on the surface of black feathers in many lineages of living birds. This is, to our knowledge, the first evidence of preservation of a colour-producing nanostructure in a fossil feather and confirms the potential for determining colour differences in ancient birds and other dinosaurs.
