New Scientist
Image: Brian Engh/dontmesswithdinosaurs.com
As well as being brightly coloured in normal light, some dinosaurs may have had ultraviolet, fluorescing horns, frills or feathers – and a few species might even have used this glow to attract a mate.
Fluorescence is relatively common among amphibians and several species of bird have fluorescent features, which absorb ultraviolet light and re-emit it at a different wavelength. Those body parts glow under UV light. Puffins have fluorescent patches on their beaks, for instance, and budgerigars have some fluorescent feathers on their heads.
D. Cary Woodruff at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto says we now know birds are dinosaurs, and that some dinosaurs had feathers while others had horns, frills and spikes that – like a puffin’s beak – were sheathed in keratin. He and his colleagues argued in a new analysis that it makes sense that at least some dinosaurs may have enhanced the appearance of these features with fluorescence. Read more on newscientist.com…
