Re: Repost

[ornstn@hookup.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>I know that colour banding in bivalves and gastropods has been 
>recorded as far back as the Devonian.  I have also looked at the 
>preservation of colour in Pleistogene gastropods from New Zealand, 
>but have found that the proteins producing the colour have decomposed 
>leaving only a shaddow where once there was colour.  My part of the 
>study was to look at the animals using UV light (both living and 
>fossil), but a search for the 'pigment' was also made.  I will try 
>and find out what the results were.  I think it was published in 
>Science or Nature last year.
>
>Neil Clark

Colour banding is also known in insect fossils; I have seen photos of fossil
Cretaceous(?) butterfly-like lacewings with the wing patterns clearly
marked.  I have no idea if the pigments themselves are preserved, though.
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
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