...and the bat. Leviticus 11:9
"By matching samples of organic material to their chemical make-up, researchers have determined the color of fossilized bats.
Jakob Vinther from the University of Bristol said that the dark, organic residues in fossils that
palaeontologists had thought were remnants of decaying bacteria were in fact preserved melanosomes, the special sub-units of a cell that carry the pigment melanin.
Researchers speculated that the melanin had changed its chemical composition while buried in the ground under high pressure and temperature. They then subjected melanin to even higher pressure and temperature, which they claim replicated within 24 hours the conditions experienced over‘millions of years’. The chemical signature from the ‘cooked’ melanin then looked similar to the fossils.
Vinther said they were able to tell the difference between red and black melanin in both fresh and fossil samples. “This meant we could test the idea that melanosome shape correlated to chemical color in the skin of the now fossilized animal—and we found that it did.”
The researchers examined two fossilized bat species and, inferred that they originally had a reddish brown coat. “This means they did not look much different from modern bats,” Vinther said."
CMI
"By matching samples of organic material to their chemical make-up, researchers have determined the color of fossilized bats.
Jakob Vinther from the University of Bristol said that the dark, organic residues in fossils that
Researchers speculated that the melanin had changed its chemical composition while buried in the ground under high pressure and temperature. They then subjected melanin to even higher pressure and temperature, which they claim replicated within 24 hours the conditions experienced over
Vinther said they were able to tell the difference between red and black melanin in both fresh and fossil samples. “This meant we could test the idea that melanosome shape correlated to chemical color in the skin of the now fossilized animal—and we found that it did.”
The researchers examined two fossilized bat species and, inferred that they originally had a reddish brown coat. “This means they did not look much different from modern bats,” Vinther said."
CMI
