The speckled skin found inside a baby dinosaurs scales

A baby dinosaur had speckled skin, not the drab gray scientists expected. Researchers at the University of Bristol studied four scales from a young Diplodocus found in Montana. They used a powerful microscope to look for pigment traces inside the scales. They found two kinds of pigment structures, oblong and disk shaped, sitting in separate clusters. This pattern hints at speckles on the skin. The disk shaped structures matched those that make brown color in living reptiles and birds. The study was published in a journal in December 2025. It is the first evidence of varied pigment in sauropod scales.

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