Abstracts

• 11550 A pigment of the imagination: The role of melanin pigment in the preservation of Archaeopteryx feathers, Solnhofen Limestone (Upper Jurassic), Germany Charles Darwin acknowledged the importance of colour in the natural selection of bird plumage. Colour can indicate age, sex, and diet, as well as play roles in camouflage, mating and establishing territories. Feather and integument colour depend on both chemical and structural characteristics and so both structure and chemistry can be used to infer colour and pigment patterns in a range of extant and fossil organisms. A pigment of the imagination: The role of melanin pigment in the preservation of Archaeopteryx feathers, Solnhofen Limestone (Upper Jurassic), Germany
  A pigment of the imagination: The role of melanin pigment in the preservation of Archaeopteryx feathers, Solnhofen Limestone (Upper Jurassic), Germany
• 11552 A spring in the dinosaur's step: Musculoskeletal modelling dinosaur locomotion Investigating the relative running ability of extinct animals can be approached through the analysis of skeletal (ostelological) adaptations for running, or cursoriality. This approach suits dinosaurs particularly well, since skeletal evidence is what fossils tend to provide best. Soft-tissue aspects of dinosaurs such as metabolism and muscle structure impact heavily upon the animals’ potential cursorial ability, but to take these factors into account relies upon many assumptions and a great deal of speculation. A spring in the dinosaur's step: Musculoskeletal modelling dinosaur locomotion
  A spring in the dinosaur's step: Musculoskeletal modelling dinosaur locomotion
• 11549 Bright Lights and Dinosaurs: Trace metal mapping and Synchrotron-based imaging of Confuciusornis Chemical analysis has rarely been applied to vertebrate fossils; such as the exceptionally preserved 120 Mya Chinese bird Confuciusornis. Ideally such analysis would measure and map the chemistry of bone, soft tissue structures, and the embedding rock matrix. Bright Lights and Dinosaurs: Trace metal mapping and Synchrotron-based imaging of Confuciusornis
  Bright Lights and Dinosaurs: Trace metal mapping and Synchrotron-based imaging of Confuciusornis
• 11553 Dinosaurs, mummies & space-shuttles The word “mummy” has been used to mean many different things, but is synonymous with excellent preservation in the realms of archaeology and palaeontology. The term signifies the preservation of soft tissue, such as hair, muscle, tendon, but especially skin. The most familiar examples to us are human, usually of the Egyptian variety, but many such remains include both human and animal remains from all over the world. Dinosaurs, mummies & space-shuttles
  Dinosaurs, mummies & space-shuttles
• 11548 Dinosaurs, Trace-metals and Hydrocarbons: Decrypting the Metallome of Life The evolution of life on Earth has given rise to the endless forms most beautiful that weave a complex web of origin, diversification and extinction. Unraveling genomes and reconstructing molecular phylogenies can now measure the evolutionary distance between living species. However, the fossil remains that litter deep time and record the evolution of all life on Earth are not so easy to characterize.  The DNA that so defines life is a fragile molecule, unable to resist even the gentlest ravages of geological time. Dinosaurs, Trace-metals and Hydrocarbons: Decrypting the Metallome of Life
  Dinosaurs, Trace-metals and Hydrocarbons: Decrypting the Metallome of Life