Re: black and white Archaeopteryx

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Tue, 11 Jun 2013, Ben Creisler wrote:
> Here's the citation for the paper:
>
> Phillip. L. Manning,   Nicholas P. Edwards, Roy A. Wogelius,  Uwe
> Bergmann,  Holly E. Barden,  Peter L. Larson,  Daniela Schwarz-Wings,
> Victoria M. Egerton, Dimosthenis Sokaras,  Roberto A. Mori and
> William I. Sellers (2013)
> Synchrotron-based chemical imaging reveals plumage patterns in a 150
> million year old early bird.
> Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry (advance online article)
> DOI: 10.1039/C3JA50077B
> http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2013/ja/c3ja50077b

Darn, paywall.

But the artist's illustration raises a question, what sort of
environment would this patterning be best suited for, assuming
it wasn't for display purposes? I'm thinking, lots of shifting
patterns as leafy branches sway in winds...