Missing Links - Dinosaur Fethers Color Determined

Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx lived in the Late Jurassic Period around 150 million years ago, in what is now southern Germany during a time when Europe was an archipelago of islands in a shallow warm tropical sea, much closer to the equator than it is now.

Similar in shape to a European Magpie, with the largest individuals possibly attaining the size of a raven, Archaeopteryx could grow to about 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) in length. Despite its small size, broad wings, and inferred ability to fly or glide, Archaeopteryx has more in common with other small Mesozoic dinosaurs than it does with modern birds. In particular, it shares the following features with the deinonychosaurs (dromaeosaurs and troodontids): jaws with sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, a long bony tail, hyperextensible second toes ("killing claw"), feathers (which also suggest homeothermy), and various skeletal features.

For the very first time, scientists have determined the color of fossilized feather Archaeopteryx, a birdlike dinosaur that represents an evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and today's birds.

In a research taken partially by the National Geographic Society, headed by Ryan Carney of Brown University, investigators used a specialized type of electron microscope to determine the pigmentation of the feather, which they say was black. -  from here