File:Sinosauropteryx-3.jpg

English: Figure 3

Detail of the Pigmented Plumage Distribution across the Face and Abdomen of Sinosauropteryx

(A) The skull of NIGP 127586, showing pigmented feathers forming a crest on the top of the head running along the dorsal side of the neck and patches of plumage on the posterioventral margin of the lower jaw and around the eye orbit. The orbit shows abundant pigment, likely from retinal melanin. Pigmented feathers can also be seen anterior to the orbit and in patches joining those around the orbit to the dorsal crest, indicating a stripe of pigment running across the eye.

(B) The skull of NIGP 127587, showing a similar pigmented plumage distribution to NIGP127586 but with poorer preservation.

(C) Interpretive drawing of the skull of (A) showing the distribution of pigmented feathers.

(D) Interpretive drawing of (B).

(E) Full reconstruction of the head of Sinosauropteryx based on the distribution of the plumage in the two specimens. This pattern conforms to a “bandit mask,” seen in many modern taxa.

(F) The abdomen of NIGP 127586, showing feather filaments running across internal melanized soft tissues.

(G) Interpretive drawing of the abdomen of NIGP 127586, showing the ventral extent of feathers (brown) and overlying sediment covering feathers dorsally (gray area).

(H) Transverse section of NIGP 127586, showing the proposed ventral extent of pigmented plumage (brown).

(I) Transverse section of NIGP 127587, showing the proposed ventral pigmented plumage extent.

Scale bars represent 20 mm in (A)–(D) and 10 mm in (F) and (G). Reconstruction and transverse sections are not to scale.