ArticleScientific reports2016
Elemental characterisation of melanin in feathers via synchrotron X-ray imaging and absorption spectroscopy.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hyperelongate ornamental tail feathers in a new early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird.PloS one · 2026Article
- From melanogenesis to melanin technologies.Communications chemistry · 2025Review
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- A new non-destructive method to decipher the origin of organic matter in fossils using Raman spectroscopy.RSC advances · 2024Article
- Preservation of corneous β-proteins in Mesozoic feathers.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Independent Evidence for the Preservation of Endogenous Bone Biochemistry in a Specimen ofBiology · 2023Article
- Tissue-specific geometry and chemistry of modern and fossilized melanosomes reveal internal anatomy of extinct vertebrates.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Pheomelanin pigment remnants mapped in fossils of an extinct mammal.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Bioreduction of toxicity influenced by bioactive molecules secreted under metal stress by Azotobacter chroococcum.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2019Article
- A new synchrotron rapid-scanning X-ray fluorescence (SRS-XRF) imaging station at SSRL beamline 6-2.Journal of synchrotron radiation · 2018Article
- Biological responses to environmental contamination. How can metal pollution impact signal honesty in avian species?Ecology and evolution · 2018Review
- Structure and Chemical Organization in Damselfly Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis Wings: A Spatially Resolved FTIR and XRF Analysis with Synchrotron Radiation.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- 36H: A Novel Potent Inhibitor for Antimelanogenesis.Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Melanin is a critical component of biological systems, but the exact chemistry of melanin is still imprecisely known. This is partly due to melanin's complex heterogeneous nature and partly because many studies use synthetic analogues and/or pigments extracted from their natural biological setting, which may display important differences from endogenous pigments. Here we demonstrate how synchrotron X-ray analyses can non-destructively characterise the elements associated with melanin pigment in situ within extant feathers. Elemental imaging shows that the distributions of Ca, Cu and Zn are almost exclusively controlled by melanin pigment distribution. X-ray absorption spectroscopy demonstrates that the atomic coordination of zinc and sulfur is different within eumelanised regions compared to pheomelanised regions. This not only impacts our fundamental understanding of pigmentation in extant organisms but also provides a significant contribution to the evidence-based colour palette available for reconstructing the appearance of fossil organisms.
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