What Colors Were Dinosaurs?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
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We know a lot about dinosaurs but there’s one question that has plagued paleontologists for decades: what color were they?
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Thanks to Julio Lacerda and Studio 252mya for the Sinosauropteryx illustrations. You can find more of Julio's work here: 252mya.com/gal...
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The fact that microraptor [3:36] had "iridescent plumage like a raven" tells us something else about them; that they could see ultraviolet. The advantage of iridescent black is that some species only see it as a shimmer, while others see the UV refraction as technicolour; eg. starlings and magpies look as colourful as budgies or parrots to each other.
This UV-vision trait must have been evolving in pre-avian dinosaurs
for female microraptors to select it as a favoured display.
Wow, great point!
I wish Edgar Alan Poe is still alive so he can make a poem with Microraptor.
My friend, that is way cool.
Ur smart
Holy crap 🤯
Sinosauropteryx; the red panda of the early Cretaceous period
red panda is no carnivore
papyshak
Don’t ruin it.
@@papyshak It techniqually belongs to the order Carnivora, but much like the giant panda, it' s mainly herbivorous
mainly? I never heard of pandas eathing organisms other than plants
They eat toxic plants...
tbh i teared up a little as i watched this. since i was little this was one of those questions I'd ask my parents and science teachers and they couldn't answer it-- and now we're learning. I dunno, this is an excellent reminder that we as a species still have so much to discover, and just cuz we don't have the answers doesn't mean we never will. Sorry to get all sappy, dudes.
NOT
No, it's fine to experience and express your wonder and get a little sentimental! Scientists figuring out about dinosaur feathers' colors is wonderful! Have a wonderful weekend!
yeah I feel like he doesn't act like it's as amazing as it is. I want to scream!! We have conclusive proof of the colour of some dinosaurs!!
and @Bhaskar Yadav only ReAL MeN cry about dinosaurs
Yeah it’s amazing because I thought we’d NEVER know!
It is kind of satisfying, kids can colour dinosaurs whatever they want and it may not be entirely wrong
I met a paleontologist who told me there were some theories that dinosaurs had sexually dimorphic colours. Meaning, males and females were coloured differently. Since many, many bird species display sexual dimorphism they theorized that dinosaurs most likely did too. Most likely, males would be brightly coloured and flashy to attract females and also have bigger, fancy fethers on certain parts of their body while females (and their young) would be duller to blend in with their surroundings. I personally love the thought of a peacock coloured t. rex. Although this kinda only applies to smaller or mid-sized dinosaurs since camoflauge isn't as useful on a gargantuan dinosaur like a stego, triceratops or rex.
i am sure of it
Thank you for gifting me the mental image of peacock colored dinosaurs, i never knew i needed it! Peacocks are my favorite birds and i love the idea of dimorphism in dinos too!
Makes sense. There's similar colour dimorphism in some mammals too.
Referring to birds as 'living dinosaurs' makes my heart flutter.
Thats because they ARE dinos
correct
Well reptile too
Me too!! They literally are!!! That's so crazy!!!!!!
@@yusufcanbaz8194 No they aren't evolution ain't a thing
According to a book I had about dinosaurs they came in only 16 colors. Curiously, these colors perfectly matched my set of crayons... oh, that was my coloring book. nvm
Master Therion cute comment :)
Thanks ^_^
Master Therion reading your comment, and listening to the background music in the beginning of the video made me laugh.
Master Therion and that's exactly how the US Government likes it's false indoctrinations on the on the masses of small children.
friendinspirit Yes! Most people think CIA stands for Central Intelligence Agency. But it actually means Crayon Indoctrination Agency.
* Plays X-Files theme song *
My thinking has always been that since birds evolved from dinosaurs (therapods specifically) they would have the same range of colors. From drab little brown and white sparrows to brilliantly colored peacocks. That also makes me wonder if they had the same vocalizations. Did they sing to attract mates? Did raptors do funky little dances like birds-of-paradise? Can you imagine a rex doing a mating dance like an ostrich does?
They likely did some primitive form of mating dance. But evidence shows that most dinosaurs likely could not sing. Or roar, for that matter
@@pocketmarcy6990 I saw a thing that estimated a dinosaur vocalization with some fossil evidence- it was a bit like the croaking noise that an ostrich or emu makes for bigger dinos. Which is actually still scary. I'm guessing smaller ones would still be a bit higher pitched as shorter and smaller vocal tract leads to a higher pitch typically (which is one of the reason both kids and even other young sound higher pitched and 'baby' like and slowly get deeper)
I am so happy that a mainstream media outlet has finally brought the actual color of the melanin in these extinct creatures to light! I hope this starts to catch on and gain some traction to help people realize that dinosaurs are not these ugly dull oversized lizards but in fact where vibrant beautiful and complex organisms that we should strive to study and understand!
logan crawford Hell, how about the simple fact that many modern lizards are quite colorful and vibrant as well? Most don't seem to know that either and they're still here!
scaper8 True, we should also focus on the scales and skin of dinosaurs swell but I was more referring to the Theropod dinosaurs with more extensive feather coverings. I should have been more clear about that haha.
You mean like BBC's Planet Dinosaur from 2015?
Daemonstorm Animations Somewhat like that yes, but a more updated and accurate view on these animals.
Lizards are very poor analogues for dinosaurs.
No disrespect to the other hosts because they're very good, but Hank will always be my favorite
Scishow: search it up
Crazy Cruzito I know. That's precisely why I like him so much.
👍🏻
Don't we all. he's a bae. nohomo,tho
Hello, small child.
the tail on sinosauropteryx reminds me of the tail of a ring tailed lemur. especially how it's held. maybe they lived in groups and the tail sticking up was how they kept track of one another? since the striped tail stands out, it'd be easy to find each other in a forest or tall grass or other plants like ferns.
Good video, although I will add that we are still pretty far away from determining the true colors of extinct organisms. In the case of birds, melanosomes are far from the only determinants of color found within feathers - carotenoids and porphyrins also contribute, and to the best of my knowledge we haven't found these compounds preserved in fossils (not yet anyway, give it time). Not to mention structural coloration, which doesn't need pigment to exhibit patterns, and so would be incredibly difficult to find fossilized unless you had an insanely well preserved specimen.
I should mention at this point that there are a few relevant conference abstracts being presented next month that address these concerns - but until they are actually published it's safe to say that the jury's still out.
Thanks
China having the cutest animals since 60 million BC
Yeah, Winnie rules them after all.
There animals aint so cute now starting a pandemic
@@Oishiisogood animist?
And all of them on the menu!
Jamie Ridgeway the animals only managed to cause a pandemic cus they were put into a dirty and unsanitary environment and probably had many diseases that they didn’t know they even had.
Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more people need to know about and see this Chanel
agreed. tell your friends :)
"punk-rock magpie"
Now that's a good name for a -band- 90s nostalgia song.
Rockin' robin
Remember when those Psittacosaurus findings were discovered and the news outlets saw the word "camouflage" and were all like "THIS DINOSAUR COULD CHANGE COLOR LIKE A CHAMELEON!!!!"
But in all seriousness, it's so awesome how we're finding colors on these animals! I remember not too long ago that people would always say "We'll never know the real colors of dinosaurs, but we can always guess based on modern species!" And now we're basically like "Oh yeah, we know the colors of some dinosaurs! Here they are!" It just goes to show that science can go a long way.
And I feel the need to add that it's not just dinosaurs and squids either--a mosasaur was discovered with countershading (a useful adaptation for a marine predator). An ichthyosaur was found to have been all black (granted that was already guessed due to skin impressions we've already found) and a tapejarid pterosaur was discovered to have had a bright red crest.
CJCroen1393 wait they did that, if so then I have lost even more faith in News outlets.
The fact that there is a chicken sized dinosaur that had a fluffy ginger tail like a red panda makes me so happy
I write the next sentence pretty often on Eon videos: Please tell us about pre-historic symbiotic relationships!! I love every video - especially the one about the frail little first angiosperm. Watching eons is like discovering life on another planet. Thank you for opening up a new world to us ✌👽❤
My favorite thing about Hank hosting these videos: All the Jurassic Park burns.
Hahaha
Sadly, the Jurassic series has been getting LESS accurate, even as the science has been getting MORE accurate. It's an extra sadness because of how much exposure the series gets versus actual science like this channel.
It's not that Big of a deal
That doest mean sience is gonna be ignored compleatly
@@gatitosanchez7788 you are right, but know that the film makers were seeking pro Paleontologists for more accurate dinosaur info that they could have in dominion, and so far the prologue has shown that the directors completely ignored them
They are innacurate on purpose, since they were filling the gap in gene codes using species like frog, lizards etc. It's stated in both old movies and new ones
@@starvingartstudent and doctor wu even states that the dinosaurs are modified not just to fill gaps, but also to make them better and earn them more profit, stating something close to “accuracy isn’t as great”
@@Tabi-Kun that's right. What I found interesting though, is that if look at raptors from the Jurassic Park 3, you can see the proto feathers on their heads meanwhile Blue and other raptors from new movies don't have them. That would mean that Isla Sorna raptors were more closely related to accurate ones. What if they filled the gap using bird genes?
Can you do a video on the Dracorex or Nanotyrannus Controversey?
We are making a list! Thanks for the ideas.
PBS Digital Studios you're Welcome
I absolutely love this channel. Can't even express how happy I am that this exists.
This is wonderful.
Do you even lift, Brah?
The problem with solely using melanosomes is that some colours "seen" aren't actually there. (The best example is the blue Morpho butterfly.)
Hien Nguyen morphos don't use melanosomes, they use microstructures in it's wing scales to redirect different wavelengths of light
kurosujiomake yes, that was my point
Hien Nguyen yeah. I heard blue pigment doesn't actually exist and is created by some microstructure. We are only getting a peep hole view into what it really was. Everything blue will not be known.
Sad but true blues and greens in nature with exception of phytochemicals exclusive to plant chloroplasts and Aphids(which stole them) are only found as a result of structural color by light scattering by the same process that makes the daytime sky appear blue Raleigh scattering. However in some exceptional cases it might be possible for some of that structure itself to be saved perhaps if like a certain tail was trapped in amber. If memory serves that Theropod tail segment stuck in amber preserved exactly that sort of structural features used to produce colors in modern birds feathers.
Though short of a a Dino's feather having gotten trapped in amber we will probably never be able to determine the actual structure as fossilization itself rarely preserves the detail needed to see structural colors like blue and green.
Hien Nguyen what about the blue on baboons?
This is quickly becoming my favorite channel
Thank you for this series! I'm a docent at a NHM and I'm always looking for new updated information to include in my tours.
Thank you so much! I've always thought about this question since I was a little girl! I asked my parents, teachers, and even people at the museum, but I never seemed to get a definite answer!! THAAAANK YOUUUUUU!
busted out laughing at "do you even lift brah"
I remember when I was in elementary school, National Geographic had a hour long special going on about “finding the color of a Anchiornis” and was REALLY hyped about it.
it's so amazing that now we can even tell what colours dinosaurs were, like can you imagine how far we've come? we have a completely different understanding of these animals than we've 50 years ago, imagine what we'll know in another 50 about them
I once clicked one of your videos in my youtube recommendations, and now I get millions of these videos recommended XD
But they are awesome, they learn me a lot and i rather watch 17 hours a day this than 1 hour history in class, these videos are awesome!
my only gripe with this vid: Hank needs a bowtie with that outfit.
Bow ties are cool. And maybe add a fez.
CyUzi5280 yeah. Bowties are cool.
Hank, "the science guy's" spiritual son?
Oh man that's so true! It would be so cool! Please Hank try it :-)
CyUzi5280 You just ruined the whole video for me. Now all I can think about is how weird his outfit looks like without a bowtie.
I just love Hank's voice. So cool hear him here too))
One dinosaur was offended by the mention of its false color
did you just assume it's color? you racist. lmao :P
Pleeeeeaaaase make a video about placoderms!
Seconded. Eons crew: if you want to tackle an episode like this, we've got cabinets and cabinets full of Mid Devonian placoderms and stem tetrapods in our lab at Philadelphia that are looking for some publicity. Hit us up :P
Making a list, checking it twice.
Absolutely - especially how recent discoveries of Silurian placoderms with osteichthyan "faces" in China (Entelognathus, Qilinyu) have finally helped to sort out how the different jawed vertebrates groups are related to one another. Have plenty of images of Chinese and Australian specimens (including the stunning Gogo fauna) as well as the sites they originated from.
3:29
I laughed at you dubbing it "punk rock magpie"..
Do a video about prehistoric turtles, I like turtles 🐢
This would be good I would like to see about turtles
Yep , like the Archelon* (that name of the specimen might be wrong though)
They have one now, yeet
Okay... Your'e a great zombie...
Really cool! Now I'm going to look up more concept art for Dino Colors.
This channel is wonderful, and I think it will fill an important role in society. Most people have no idea how truly incredible and overwhelmingly relevant the history of life on Earth is - understanding climate change and our current mass extinction; comprehending humanity's role in the Universe; I've even noticed metaphorical parallels between different evolutionary strategies and different economic systems! Paleontology helps inform my worldview.
There’s something special about knowing exactly what dinos looked like
Do a video on mammal like reptiles
those are called synapsids
Synapsids aren't Reptiles, but it's still taking time for the news to filter down to the masses. :)
Yes, please! Pelycosaurs and Therapsids are so unjustly overlooked. :(
'Stem Mammals' are quite more appropriate term
Holy Canolli i just realised your a greene brother, your biology crash course gave me an A
MORE!!! VIDEOS!!! ABOUT!!! EXTINCTION!!! EVENTS!!!
That! was! 14! exclamation! marks! too! many! for! a!! functioning!! sentence!!
Danochy THE👏INTERNET👏DOESN'T👏ALLOW👏FOR👏THE👏CORRECT👏PITCH👏AND👏TONE PATTERNS👏SO👏I👏NEED👏TO👏MAKE👏MY👏POINT👏USING👏PUNCTUATION👏MARKS👏UPPER👏CASE👏AND👏EMOJIS
Camila Stefanie You really don't. A single mark would suffice.
Danochy I wish I could reply with that meme about my point and how it completely flew over your head but then you'd reply saying that it's not necessary. Have fun not being invited to any parties, General Killjoy ✌
Well considering the written word was designed to convey your thoughts in a succint manner, and if further punctuation was required it would have been invented... I think we're fine with what we've got.
Other than that, I agree. More videos about extinction events would be good.
0:34 You spoke the truth my friend
Hank you're a hero, thanks for all you do
Not all heros wear capes
Now every time I am reading a textbook, I hear this guy's voice... and I love it!
Props to you for reading textbooks! Lol
I really enjoy your videos. Over the years I watch them more and more.
Aaaawww snap, eons baby.
I study geosciences.
I'm just working on my thesis on an ichthyosaur.
As soon as that's done I'll do my masters and specialise in dinosaurs.
I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting for a channel like this that is about my very field.
Made. My. Day.
it's interesting that sinosauropteryx is often illustrated with a wispy, almost lemure-like tail. I've always been under the impression (perhaps misinformed) that small predatory dinosaurs like that have stiff tails that help keep balance when sprinting, or maybe I've just been fed outdated information.
I'm especially interested in the Paleozoic eras, and specifically how the environments and ecosystems were different from more modern eras.
I am absolutely loving this series
thank you!
We love you back!
Wow! That is way cool. My mind is officially blown.
No question, I love videos like this, that make dinos more real and add facts that suggest behaviour. But I find that the popular focus on dinosaurs tends to leave out the incredibly fascinating fauna that appeared after they died out - especially the odd critters that turned up in Australia, and in South America before they had a land bridge to North America, and the weird variety of early elephants... there's no end of it, and I'm always delighted to find new info on it. The Pleistocene megafauna gets less recognition than it deserves, I think, and I would love to see shows that address them and introduce them to a wider audience that might not have thought about what happened in the past 60-odd million years. Just my thoughts on possible future topics. :-) And thank you for creating this channel, it's immediately become a favourite!
If dinosaurs saw Jurassic Park, would they think it was about a nudist colony?
Thanks for the video.
So many other pbs eons videos forget the feathers. When you point one finger at Jurassic Park, you point 4 at yourself.
In terms of Jurrasic park the dinosaurs aren't made of pure dinosaur DNA every Dinosaur in the park are hybrids they have DNA mixed in to make them more suited to the tropical island
Um... This isn’t about fiction. We’re talking about nonfiction.. So whatever you are saying has nothing to do with this video.
We based too much of dinosaurs look after Jurassic park.
These series are great! Thank you.
thank YOU for watching!
As an aspiring paleontologist I can say that this channel is very enjoyable.
I have officially watched all of Eons videos! This was the final one.
I would like to hear more about ancient flora, as well as insects and other ancient creatures with exoskeletons.
Hey Eons,
What I want to know about is the evolution of the senses and sensory organs like ears and eyes. They're pretty ubiquitous among marine and terrestrial animals alike which suggests a common ancestor that goes back a long way, so what do we know about that piece of evolution?
Punk Rock Magpie is a great band name
that moment when you realize how majestic real raptors look back then
makes you want one as a pet
Not me I watched Jurassic world haha
Awesome! I hadn't heard about these discoveries before!
Personally I would like to see a video on the prehistoric islands. What about you guys?
Could you guys maybe do a video segment on the evolution of small theropods to birds? Also, personally, I kind of appreciate it if you had a segment directed at dromaeosaurs and troodonts.
i like how there was a slight sence of dissgust/confusion when he said there was a ginger dino
Now I know why hank green sounded so familiar to me!!
What color were dinosaurs? Look at a picture of a cassowary. There's one probable color combination.
When you just finished watching the recent video about the non-existent squid fossils.... What's going on in here 1:15 ? XD
I went to a science museum when I was 10 where there was a machine were you could randomly change the colors on a T-Rex; everything from purple polka dots to tiger stripes. The plaque next to it said that nobody knows what color the dinosaurs were, so they could look like anything! I believe I’ve been bamboozled.
I love developments in paleontology's understanding, especially of appearence, it makes paleoart interesting and closer to the truth
This was mentioned a few episodes ago, but I would so be down for an episode about ancient corals.
So...Sinosauropteryx was a Cretaceous Coatamundi????? Neat!!!!
Episode on all the puppy sized dinos please - including the Elephant of course!
Like an imagining of what it'd be like to keep them properly in modern times - a mini JP 😆
"Imagine Dinosaurs" is my favorite pop tribute band.
Thanks Hank, I'm glad It wasn't the other guy cause I'd have to slow down the video.
I still think you should do a video on the Biting Sperm Whale, or Gastrononicus(still not sure if that is right).
Maybe one on everybody's favourite Megalodon.
I had to look up who Charles R. Knight was but it was worth it. Cool dude.
With the power of modern digital manipulation it might be interesting to "remake" the Jurassic Park movies with brightly colored feathered dinosaurs. I'd like to see it, wouldn't you?
Microraptor is totally being given magic powers and being put in my new story.
I don't think there's anything wrong with Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, they were all genetically engineered after-all, so it safe to say they are all made the way they looked at the movie.
Remember what Claire said? The guests wanted something more bigger and terrifying. The result are pretty much oversize Mosasaurus, Indominous Rex, smart Velociraptor, Indoraptor, and literally every dinosaurs in the franchise
I remmber watching a CG documentary of a small species of island raptor a long time ago and this raptor was depicted with iridescent blue plumage all over it’s whole body.
Saw Hank. Immediately clicked on Subscribe. Total reflexive action.
Hank looks immensely good today, wow. Just wow.
Vikings488 i
Why don't you marry him then
It doesn't matter what color they are, they should all be treated the same!
Dennis nice one
They all eat you the same. Wish to know what color to paint them with.
I'd go to Hank's Park
Firstly, love the series and many other PBS and Green Brother's channels!
I have a suggestion for a video; How did Pangaea come to be, considering
the probability all plate tectonics would be in the same location at the same time? or more broadly; the history of plate tectonics --> Biogeography
Saw a really interesting documentary on TH-cam from national geographic where they explained the birth of earth and along with it were explanations of why the continent plates once were united into one
There has got to be a band out there somewhere called "Punk Rock Magpie"
I'd love to see a video about eggs and how they have changed over time
ohhhh interesting. we are making a list. thank you!
Along the vein of what dinosaurs looked like, how do paleontologists figure out how muscles looked on dinosaurs? I also loved your video on Dinosaur art so that is also behind the question/idea for a video. I love natural history...WHAT ABOUT THE HISTORY OF NATURAL HISTORY? Or our relationship to ancient history?
Speaking of color, can you please do an episode on the coevolution of color vision in mammals and the development of flowers/fruit in plants.
four wing micro raptor....that just sounds cooler then it looks
Bam5000000 that's what it's been since it's discovery
I know! I'd vaguely heard of microraptor but I guess I never saw a picture 'cos FOUR WINGS?! That, I definitely would've remembered. Whoah.
Bam5000000 Technically, it’s tail also acted as a set of wings so it has six wings
Near the top of the seventy or so *major* problems with the Jurassic Park movies is the fact that most every animal is greyish-brown or brownish-grey.
Thanks for showing me the adorable Sinosauropteryx.
Hollywood usually ignores reality, so no doubt they’ll keep giving the dinos whatever colours they like.
I somehow suspect this channel was inspired by the success of TREY the Explainer. He did a longer video on this same topic.
Except he isn't particularly flashy or professional. He is just a cool dude with a TH-cam channel. This is a PBS channel on TH-cam.
A lot of paleo artist like depict theropods with coloration basically lifted from birds, if you’ve seen the Beasts of the Mesozoic toy line you’ve seen that. Sinosauropteryx shows not to be afraid of looking to mammals for inspiration.
Not all Dinosaurs had feathers. Matter of fact many didn't. The ones without feathers we may never know the colors they were. I would say the early scientists weren't far off. They were probably shaded of green, brown, grey and other earth colors. Cause that's usually the colors of modern day animals that are both herbivores and predators. You don't see many Cheetahs with bright blue fur covered in red spots. If they wanted to survive they would need camo to stay hidden, if they wanted to successfully hunt they would need to be unseen for as long as possible.
The development of eyes from the simplest eyes to the most complex eyes
I clicked into the video knowing the answer and clicked out of the video knowing it too. I assume the rest of the dinosaurs which weren't mentioned had varying browns and greys to help them blend into their environment if they were predators who sneak-attacked their prey or prey who hid in the trees.