Re: 50 mya Beetle Found, Color Preserved; Possible For Other Fossils?

["Michael Schmidt" <dmschmidt@sprint.ca>]

A photo of such a specimen is available in the February 2000 issue of
National Geographic, page 50/51.  I am nmot sure, but the specimen may be
part of the Senckenberg Museum collection
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard W Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 8:39 AM
Subject: 50 mya Beetle Found, Color Preserved; Possible For Other Fossils?


>
>
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0818_030818_beetlefossil.html
>
> Paleontologists are used to drab brown and gray fossils. Sediments that
> seep in to cast the shape of ancient organisms in stone, determine the
> color. Instead, long-gone beasts and the ancient worlds they inhabited,
> spring to life in the depths of these scientists' imaginations.
>
> Now under exceptional circumstances, scientists have uncovered and
> explained a 50-million-year-old beetle fossil that still retains the
> bright blue metallic hue it sported in life. This beetle and others from
> the same site, are very rare examples of fossils that retain any original
> color, and are the oldest colored fossils ever found.
>
> The specimen is a "paleontological Rosetta stone" said Andrew Parker, lead
> researcher behind the find, and evolutionary biologist at the University
> of Oxford in England. The fossil beetle may be the key to analyzing and
> predicting the color of other well-preserved invertebrate fossils, fish
> scales and even bird and dinosaur feathers, that have not retained any
> original coloration, he said.
>
> The beetle specimen was found in 50-million-year-old oil shale deposits
> from the Messel Quarry near Frankfurt, Germany. Messel, a World Heritage
> site, is unique because its fossils are so well preserved. Bats and
> crocodiles for example, not only retain skeletal parts, but outlines of
> their entire bodies. The beetles are unusual in that they still contain
> the original materialchitinthat formed their exoskeleton in life.
>
> Messel fossil hunters had previously turned up beetles, which retained
> bright colors lost on drying, but those researchers had paid little heed
> to color before. "Plenty of people are working on color in animals today,
> but few have thought of looking at colors in the past," said Parker.
>
> Parker, and physicist colleague David McKenzie of the University of
> Sydney, are the first to detail these colored beetles and explain why they
> have retained their decoration over so many millennia. The pair describe
> the remarkable find in a recent online edition of the journal Biology
> Letters.
> ...
> However there are ways, other than chemical pigmentation, in which
> organisms can produce color. One way is using a structure, such as wafer
> thin stacks of thin translucent organic material, to interfere with and
> reflect light (in a similar way to a prism splitting white light into
> colored beams). These films, made of chitin for example, can reflect and
> amplify light of one wavelength (or color). This is how most iridescent or
> metallic animal colors are produced, such as those striking hues found to
> adorn shiny butterfly wings, the feathers of hummingbirds and peacocks,
> and an entire rainbow of beetles.
>
> Microscopic analysis revealed that the exoskeleton of the beetle found at
> Messel did indeed retain a type of structure known as a multi-layer
> reflector in its chitin exoskeleton, thus explaining its color.
> ...
> This is the first time that a multi-layer reflector has been found in a
> fossil, and the find may have wider implications, said Parker. It could
> pave the way for predicting the color of other well-preserved fossils that
> no longer retain original hues, but still carry the fine shape of
> once-translucent, color-producing structures. Computer models could then
> be used to predict the wavelength of light, or color, that would have been
> reflected back from these structures in life.
>
> To prove that point, Parker and McKenzie prepared a slice of the fossil
> and examined it under a powerful electron microscope. They measured the
> dimensions of the multi-layer reflector and fed those details into a
> computer program. The results were encouraging. Using those measurements
> alone, the computer program predicted that a bright blue hue would be
> produced.
>
> That result proves that the method could be accurately used to measure
> other exceptionally well-preserved fossils containing similar
> color-producing structures. These would most likely be other types of
> invertebrate shell, but could include anything from iridescent reptile
> skin to iridescent bird feathersand even feathers of dinosaur relatives,
> said Parker. Extinct and numerous trilobitesflattened oval-shaped,
> lobster-like animalsmight be one obvious contender, he added.
>
> Data on ancient color could tell us about the environment and behavior of
> animals. Coloration is important for mating, camouflage, and intimidation,
> said Parker.
>