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Importantly, Rab38 has closely resembled partner Rab32, and both of them are known to be important for determination of hair color, by regulating the logistics to melanosome, an organelle specialized for color pigmentation in skin and hair forming cells.

"These tissue-specific melanosome geometries in pterosaurs indicate that manipulation of feather colour—and thus functions of feathers in visual communication—has deep evolutionary origins. These features show that genetic regulation of melanosome chemistry and shape was active early in feather evolution."

McNamara and her co-authors found different melanosome shapes in Tupandactylus’s skin and in two types of the fluffy, featherlike filament structures along its skull, implying the colors in each would have been different from one another.

Paleontologists have recently questioned earlier hypotheses about which melanosome shapes create which particular shades.

Though this area of paleontology is still new, previous pterosaur studies only found homogenous melanosome shapes in their tissues.