Dinosaurs may have used color as camouflage

Fossilized pigment pouches tell story of ancient animal’s habitat

Psittacosaurus

HIDE AND SEEK  Researchers hypothesized what sort of environment a parrot-beaked herbivore called Psittacosaurus (model shown) inhabited based on fossilized pigmentment patterns. 

J. Vinther et al/Current Biol. 2016

The stories of dinosaurs’ lives may be written in fossilized pigments, but scientists are still wrangling over how to read them.