RE: Ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs had dark skin pigments

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> I can't get this paper and the methods probably would be beyond my technical 
> ability by some measure to follow, but for those of
you
> 'in the know' can this technique be used for skin fossils/impressions of 
> land-living dinos?

Jaime Headden has some good comments on FB about this paper, which hopefully 
will be repeated here.

But this is the same technique as used in finding the colors (or at least the 
'paint pot' aspect of color) in Sinosauropteryx,
Anchiornis, Microraptor, etc. Unless you have carbonized or mineralized skin or 
feathers, it won't work. Just skin impressions won't
do it.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA