Black and White Print, Not Feathers

The most important thing to remember about these fossil penguins is that they are very much like modern penguins. That fact born in mind, reading the papers detailing studies of these penguins makes the papers easier to feel okay about. Not understanding that these penguins are like modern penguins in many regards make the papers seem very odd, as they discuss the animals in ways that make them seem quite modern in respect to the "oddness" of other fossil animals in comparison to their extant descendants. After reading the papers this logic makes sense, I promise. Those papers detail the evolutionary history of penguins as well as detailing individual aspects of both penguins. Those include osteology and the colors of feathers. Fossil feathers and coloration is a fantastic topic actually, and I definitely recommend reading that last paper on Inkayacu.

From Clarke, et al. 2010.