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

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Richard W Travsky wrote:
> 
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0818_030818_beetlefossil.html
> 
> ...
> 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)...
> ...
> This is the first time that a multi-layer reflector has been found in a
> fossil...

This is similar to the fish fossil that turned up a few years ago that
was well enough preserved to reconstruct its original bright red
colouration. 

-- 
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Dann Pigdon                   Australian Dinosaurs:
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/
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