Some stick-friends.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting our research on phasmid eggs at the international stick insect meeting organized at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. A big thanks to the organizers for the opportunity and creating such an amazing event!

After the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, mammals may have been free to diversify into the wide array of colors, from red pandas, to grey koalas, and striped tigers!
🧵(6/6) picture credits to
@michaelnicolai.bsky.social
and André Zambolli!

The fossils that we studied are extinct mammals with distinct life style, from living on ground, to swimming, and gliding through the treetops like modern day flying squirrels.
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While modern mammals had a wide variety in melanosome shapes, all of the fossils had relatively large and long shaped melanosomes that our models predicted would produce dark colors!

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We were able to determine the color thanks to the pristine fossilization of the hairs and melanosome pigments! Their shape and size was preserved in rock, and we found that, in living mammals, these shapes correlate with their color!
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Mammals evolved in the shadows of dinosaurs, where small and nocturnal habits helped them avoid larger predators! However, almost nothing was known about their coloration, which can influence their ability to camouflage!

🧵(2/6) Picture by Jonathan Goldenberg
!

We are very excited to share our new paper in Science! We show that a diverse group of Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals all had darkly-colored fur.

Well how did we do this? Let' start at the beginning!
🧵 (1/6) @science.org

In our newest paper we highlight the similarities and differences in biomineralization patterns of different animals eggshells!
pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/A...