Colorful Dinosaur Discovered in China
Also, a new drug treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, a painful condition that affects one in every 100 people.
15 March 2010
A drawing of Anchiornis huxley
BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Today, we will tell about two kinds of dinosaurs. Scientists say one of the creatures was brightly colored. Evidence shows the other was able to fly. We will also tell about a new drug treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. And we will tell about Washington’s famous cherry trees.
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Colorful Dinosaurs
BOB DOUGHTY: Many scientists have long thought that dinosaurs were brown or gray in color. But scientists examining the remains of a dinosaur say they have found evidence it had brightl -colored feathers. The findings were published in Science magazine.
American and Chinese researchers rebuilt the feathers of a flightless dinosaur called Anchiornis huxleyi. The small, two-legged creature lived about one hundred-fifty million year ago. It would have weighed only about one hundred ten grams.
BARBARA KLEIN: The researchers used an electron microscope and fossilized remains of thirty feathers that once covered the animal. The remains were discovered in Liaoning Province in China.
Researchers studied melanosomes in the feathers. These small, color-producing structures formed as the dinosaur was developing. The researchers compared the structures to the melanosomes that control the color of feathers on modern birds. They were then able to identify the colors of the dinosaur feathers.
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