Where do birds get their red feathers from? According to a new article, the red carotenoids that give the common crossbill its red coloration are produced in the liver, not the skin, as previously ...

The discovery of microscopic color-making structures in fossilized feathers has recently made it possible for scientists to picture dinosaurs and ancient birds in their natural hues. But a group of ...

The news that many dinosaurs were likely covered in a thick layer of feathers may make them seem a little less imposing — but it also means they may have been intensely colorful. Now scientists have ...

What color was a Velociraptor? A little over 5 years ago, many thought paleontologists just could not answer that question. After all, there may be amazing fossils of carbonized feathers, but they don ...

The traces of organic material found in fossil feathers are remnants of pigments that once gave birds their color, according to Yale scientists whose paper in Biology Letters opens up the potential to ...

Scientists have identified mutations in three key genes that determine feather color in domestic rock pigeons. The same genes control pigmentation of human skin and can be responsible for melanoma and ...

Exposure to sulfur-rich volcanic soil may increase production of pheomelanin, a pigment that gives a reddish tint to the feathers of barn owls living on remote volcanic islands Barn owls (Tyto alba) ...

What color were dinosaurs? Well, at least one of them had a head-to-tail feathered mohawk in a subdued palette of chestnut and white stripes. That is what a team of Chinese and British scientists ...