Have you ever wondered what color dinosaurs were when they walked the earth? Now we know–at least for one species, Anchiornis huxleyi. This dino was about the size of a chicken, and was mostly black and white, except for a rust-colored crest on its head (similar to today’s woodpecker).

How do scientists know that Anchiornis huxleyi looked like this? They examined fossils of the dinosaur’s feathers and were able to determine their colors based on melanosomes.  Melanosomes are parts of cells that produce melanin (that’s the stuff that pigments your skin). They were able to figure out the dino’s colors by comparing their fossilized melansonomes with the melanosomes found in modern birds.

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Illustration by National Geographic