Collaborative Research: Paleocolor--The Mechanics and Evolution of Plumage Color in Birds and Other Dinosaurs

合作研究：古颜色——鸟类和其他恐龙羽毛颜色的机制和进化马修·肖基，阿克伦大学，EAR-1251895朱莉娅·克拉克，德克萨斯大学，奥斯汀，ear -1251922该奖项由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程部门共同资助。摘要该研究将极大地提高我们对基于黑色素的颜色产生的生理学知识，将为颜色和基于颜色的新奇事物在鸟类进化中的意义提供独特的见解，并可能为新的光学纳米结构提供灵感。最近的发现，羽毛颜色的证据可以在化石记录中以保存的黑素体（含黑色素的细胞器）的形式找到，现在允许在考虑灭绝和现存恐龙物种的框架下研究羽毛颜色。pi建议确定现存鸟类的黑素体形态和化学与颜色产生的关系，确定这些关系如何通过化石改变，然后使用这些数据来检验羽毛颜色对鸟类进化意义的假设。这个跨学科的提案，涉及形态学、古生物学、进化生物学和化学，因此分为两个相关的部分，并有具体的可交付成果。在第一部分中，pi将使用紫外-可见反射光谱法客观测量现有羽毛的颜色，扫描电子显微镜（SEM）来量化黑素体的形态，基于同步加速器的质谱法来检查化学和原子力显微镜来检查黑素体的表面纹理。使用这些多重测量和统计分析来定量地确定它们与颜色之间的关系，将使他们能够根据化石样本的评估做出自信的颜色重建。羽毛和黑素体的实验降解将有助于pi确定黑素体的形状和/或化学如何改变。第二部分带来了来自第一部分的数据，以解决以前无法验证的关于羽毛进化中颜色多样性的起源和作用的假设。使用聚焦离子束（FIB）铣削和显微镜，pi将识别有助于鸟类颜色多样化的新形态的存在，即虹彩纳米结构和中空扁平的黑素体，它们产生了自然界中一些最明亮的颜色。这将使pi能够估计黑素体的形态多样性和颜色如何从羽毛的早期进化到现代鸟类，以及这种多样性是否与羽毛进化的主要转变有关。恐龙的颜色呈现了一个引人入胜的背景，将化学、物理和生物的基础知识带到教室和普通公众。pi提出了几个公共推广计划，这些计划将利用公众对这项工作的强烈兴趣。开发公开可用的数据分析工具将使其技术得到科学界的广泛应用。

Collaborative Research: Paleocolor- the mechanisms and evolution of plumage color in birds and other dinosaurs Matthew Shawkey, Univ. Akron, EAR-1251895 Julia Clarke, Univ. Texas, Austin, EAR-1251922This award is being co-funded by NSF's International Science and Engineering section. ABSTRACTThe proposed research will greatly improve our knowledge of the physiology of melanin-based color production, will provide unique insight into the significance of color and color-based novelties to the evolution of birds, and may provide inspiration for new optical nanostructures. The recent discovery that evidence of feather coloration can be found in the fossil record in the form of preserved melanosomes (melanin-containing organelles) now allows investigation of plumage coloration in a framework considering both extinct and living dinosaur species. PIs propose to identify how melanosome morphology and chemistry relate to color production in extant birds, determine how these relationships may be altered by fossilization, and then use these data to test hypotheses on the significance of plumage color to avian evolution. This interdisciplinary proposal, involving morphology, paleontology, evolutionary biology and chemistry, is therefore divided into two linked sections with specific deliverables. In the first section, PIs will use ultraviolet-visible reflectance spectrometry to objectively measure color of extant feathers, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to quantify melanosome morphology, synchrotron-based mass spectrometry to examine chemistry and atomic force microscopy to examine surface texture of melanosomes. The use of these multiple measurements, and statistical analyses to quantitatively identify relationships between them and color, will allow them to make confident reconstructions of color based on assessment of fossil samples. Experimental degradation of feathers and melanosomes will help PIs determine how melanosome shape and/or chemistry may be altered. The second section brings data from the first to address previously untestable hypotheses concerning the origin and role of color diversity in feather evolution. Using focused ion beam (FIB) milling and microscopy, PIs will identify the presence of novel morphologies contributing to color diversification in birds, i.e. iridescent nanostructures and hollow, flattened melanosomes that produce some of the brightest colors in nature. That will allow PIs to estimate how melanosome morphological diversity and thus color may have shifted from early in evolution of feathers through modern birds and whether this diversification was associated with major transitions in the evolution of feathers. The color of dinosaurs presents an engaging context to bring fundamentals of chemistry, physics, and biology to the classroom and the lay public. PIs propose several public outreach programs that will capitalize on strong public interest in this work. Development of publicly available data analysis tools will allow broad applications of their techniques by the scientific community.