"Missing Link" Dinosaur: Feather Color Determined

January 24, 2012—Scientists have determined the color of a fossilized feather of Archaeopteryx, a birdlike dinosaur that represents an evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and today's birds.

In research partially funded by the National Geographic Society and 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.                                                                           .