Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40793940›Full record

ArticleeLife2025

Iridescent structural coloration in a crested Cretaceous enantiornithine bird from the Jehol Biota.

Zhiheng Li, Jinsheng Hu, Thomas A Stidham, Mao Ye, Min Wang, Yanhong Pan, Tao Zhao, Jingshu Li, Zhonghe Zhou, Julia A Clarke

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Zhiheng Li *Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6968-6982
Jinsheng Hu *School of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0538-4245
Thomas A StidhamKey Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Mao YeSchool of Instrumentation and Optoelectronic Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
Min WangKey Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8506-1213
Yanhong PanState Key Laboratory of Critical Earth Material Cycling and Mineral Deposits, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Centre for Research and Education on Biological Evolution and Environment and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5645-1466
Tao ZhaoInstitute of Palaeontology, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Earth System Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
Jingshu LiKey Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Zhonghe ZhouKey Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Julia A ClarkeDepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States.

Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China 2024YFF0807602National Key Research and Development Program of China 2024YFF0807603National Science Foundation of China 37110101National Science Foundation of China 42288201National Science Foundation of China 42472047NSFC Fund for Excellent Young Scholars KZ 37110101
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A combination of sectioning and microscopy techniques, along with the application of finite-difference-time-domain modeling on a fossil feather, results in the novel estimation of the range of iridescent colors from the fossilized melanosome type and organization preserved in the elongate head crest feathers of a new Cretaceous enantiornithine bird. The densely packed rod-like melanosomes are estimated to have yielded from red to deep blue iridescent coloration of the head feathers. The shape and density of these melanosomes also may have further increased the feather's structural strength. This occurrence on a likely male individual is highly suggestive of both a signaling function of the iridescent crest and a potential behavioral role in adjusting the angle of light incidence to control the display of this iridescent structural coloration.

Indexed as

BirdsFeathersFossilsIridescencePigmentationAnimalsColorMaleMelanosomesbirdscolorcrestevolutionary biologyfeatherfossil

Identifiers

PMID40793940
PMCPMC12342819

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.