Quote Originally Posted by tommo View Post
I thought that bit meant that the copper biomarker is preserved really well, so they don't really need the eumelanin to be preserved?
I think you may be right...

We were able to map elevated levels of eumelanin pigment in the neck, body and distal tail feathers of C. sanctus, but also resolve the subtle variations in tone and pigment concentrations within its wings. C. sanctus preserved both evidence of pigment chemistry but also the microscopic biological paint-pot (melanosome) that once held the pigment, so that the two were correlated for the first time.
For some reason I thought this meant that it was necessary to have both the pigment as well as the melanosome in order to determine the subtle variations in tone/pigment concentrations. (since they didn't do this, or talk about it with the second one)