9 Result(s)
within
Matthew D. Shawkey
Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary
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Article
Open AccessPterosaur melanosomes support signalling functions for early feathers
Remarkably well-preserved soft tissues in Mesozoic fossils have yielded substantial insights into the evolution of feathers1. New evidence of branched feathers in pterosaurs suggests that feathers originated in t...
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Open AccessEvidence corroborates identity of isolated fossil feather as a wing covert of Archaeopteryx
The historic fossil feather from the Jurassic Solnhofen has played a pivotal but controversial role in our evolutionary understanding of dinosaurs and birds. Recently, a study confirmed the diagnostic morpholo...
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Open AccessExposure to UV radiance predicts repeated evolution of concealed black skin in birds
Plumage is among the most well-studied components of integumentary colouration. However, plumage conceals most skin in birds, and as a result the presence, evolution and function of skin colour remains unexplo...
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Egg pigmentation probably has an early Archosaurian origin
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Open AccessA bony-crested Jurassic dinosaur with evidence of iridescent plumage highlights complexity in early paravian evolution
The Jurassic Yanliao theropods have offered rare glimpses of the early paravian evolution and particularly of bird origins, but, with the exception of the bizarre scansoriopterygids, they have shown similar sk...
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Article
Open AccessRainbow peacock spiders inspire miniature super-iridescent optics
Colour produced by wavelength-dependent light scattering is a key component of visual communication in nature and acts particularly strongly in visual signalling by structurally-coloured animals during courtsh...
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Melanosome evolution indicates a key physiological shift within feathered dinosaurs
Sampling of extant and fossil amniotes reveals that the diversity of melanosome morphologies increased sharply around the time of the origin of pinnate feathers in maniraptoran dinosaurs (the lineage leading t...
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Skin pigmentation provides evidence of convergent melanism in extinct marine reptiles
Dark melanin pigment was detected in the fossilized skin of three distantly related marine reptiles (a leatherback turtle, mosasaur and ichthyosaur); benefits of thermoregulation and/or crypsis may have contri...
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New evidence on the colour and nature of the isolated Archaeopteryx feather
Archaeopteryx has been regarded as an icon of evolution ever since its discovery from the Late Jurassic limestone deposits of Solnhofen, Germany in 1861. Here we report the first evidence of colour from Archaeopt...
