ArticlePloS one2013
Melanin concentration gradients in modern and fossil feathers.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Analysis of the Reliability of Feather Sections for Corticosterone Measurement in Pekin Ducks.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Dark wing pigmentation as a mechanism for improved flight efficiency in the Larinae.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Canalised and plastic components of melanin-based colouration: a diet-manipulation experiment in house sparrows.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Environmental Factors Affecting Feather Taphonomy.Biology · 2022Article
- Evidence corroborates identity of isolated fossil feather as a wing covert of Archaeopteryx.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Recent advances in amniote palaeocolour reconstruction and a framework for future research.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2020Article
- Applications of chemical imaging techniques in paleontology.National science review · 2019Review
- Experimental subaqueous burial of a bird carcass and compaction of plumage.Palaontologische zeitschrift · 2018Article
- Biochemistry and adaptive colouration of an exceptionally preserved juvenile fossil sea turtle.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- 3D Camouflage in an Ornithischian Dinosaur.Current biology : CB · 2016Article
- Article
- Chemical, experimental, and morphological evidence for diagenetically altered melanin in exceptionally preserved fossils.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Article
- Melanosomes or microbes: testing an alternative hypothesis for the origin of microbodies in fossil feathers.Scientific reports · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In birds and feathered non-avian dinosaurs, within-feather pigmentation patterns range from discrete spots and stripes to more subtle patterns, but the latter remain largely unstudied. A ∼55 million year old fossil contour feather with a dark distal tip grading into a lighter base was recovered from the Fur Formation in Denmark. SEM and synchrotron-based trace metal mapping confirmed that this gradient was caused by differential concentration of melanin. To assess the potential ecological and phylogenetic prevalence of this pattern, we evaluated 321 modern samples from 18 orders within Aves. We observed that the pattern was found most frequently in distantly related groups that share aquatic ecologies (e.g. waterfowl Anseriformes, penguins Sphenisciformes), suggesting a potential adaptive function with ancient origins.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.