Pterosaur melanosomes support signalling functions for early feathers.

ABSTRACT: 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 the avemetatarsalian ancestor of pterosaurs and dinosaurs in the Early Triassic², but the homology of these pterosaur structures with feathers is controversial^3,4. Reports of pterosaur feathers with homogeneous ovoid melanosome geometries^2,5 suggest that they exhibited limited variation in colour, supporting hypotheses that early feathers functioned primarily in thermoregulation⁶. Here we report the presence of diverse melanosome geometries in the skin and simple and branched feathers of a tapejarid pterosaur from the Early Cret

SUBMITTER: Cincotta A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9046085 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature