A bizarre reptile once scurried through the Triassic treetops with an extravagant crest on its back, one made from neither scale, nor bone, nor feather. The extinct creature's 247-million-year-old ...

The study of fossil feathers and melanosome preservation has significantly advanced our understanding of the evolutionary history of vertebrate integumentary systems. Fossilised feathers, replete with ...

A new study of rare 160-million-year-old dinosaur fossils has opened a fresh window onto the evolution of flight in dinosaurs and birds By examining fossilized feather molting patterns, Yosef Kiat, a ...

Dinosaur feathers are usually described as evidence of flight. But when researchers recently examined fossils preserved with their feathers intact, and found patterns of feather molting, they ...

Birds are famous for their colorful feathers, which they use to fly, flirt and keep warm. But long before avians ever flapped their wings, flying reptiles called pterosaurs seized the skies. Among ...

Tiny pebblelike structures found in a 54-million-year-old fossilized fish eye contain the natural pigment, melanin, a study reveals. Similar structures show up regularly on fossilized feathers, hair ...

Maria McNamara receives funding from the European Research Council and Research Ireland. A delicate, innocuous little fossil reptile known as Mirasaura grauvogeli – “Grauvogel’s wonder reptile” – is ...

A recently discovered species of dinosaur has lead researchers to believe these ancient creatures may have been feathery, rather than just plain old scaley. Scientists found hundreds of fossils of a ...

Vinther came up with a method to predict dinosaur colors based on how the creatures’ melanosomes appeared under the microscope—whether they looked like sausages, meatballs, something in between, or ...