Researchers working at an Alberta dinosaur locality found bright orange lichens preferentially colonize areas with higher dinosaur-bone density in three ironstone-rich microfossil bonebeds. Two lichen species were most abundant where fossil density was greatest, and the study reports an exponential relationship between lichen cover and fossil density. The authors suggest aircraft or satellite imagery tuned to the lichens' color spectrum could help locate promising fossil sites, though the method needs wider validation across regions and substrates.
How Orange Lichens Could Guide Satellites to Dinosaur Fossils
Researchers working at an Alberta dinosaur locality found bright orange lichens preferentially colonize areas with higher dinosaur-bone density in three ironstone-rich microfossil bonebeds. Two lichen species were most abundant where fossil density was greatest, and the study reports an exponential relationship between lichen cover and fossil density. The authors suggest aircraft or satellite imagery tuned to the lichens' color spectrum could help locate promising fossil sites, though the method needs wider validation across regions and substrates.
03:34, 06.11.2025Science
How orange lichens may point the way to dinosaur bones
For decades, fossil hunters have noticed a distinctive bright-orange crust on exposed dinosaur bones. Those patches are lichens — compact colonies in which algae or cyanobacteria live in partnership with fungi — and new research shows they preferentially colonize exposed fossil material.
Working at a known dinosaur locality in Alberta, Canada, researchers measured lichen cover across three microfossil bonebeds rich in ironstone. They found that two lichen species were significantly more abundant where fossil-bone density was highest. As the authors note in a recent Current Biology paper,
"The exponential increase in lichen colonisation with increasing fossil density that we observed ... reinforces the potential for using lichens as indicators of productive bonebeds."
That pattern suggests a new search strategy: instead of relying on manual prospecting or chance discoveries, paleontologists could use aircraft or satellite imagery tuned to the lichen color spectrum to locate ground with a higher probability of containing fossils. Remote sensing of orange-lichen hotspots could move much of prospecting to the skies — a change especially useful in rugged, remote regions where many dinosaur remains remain hidden.
Potential and caveats
Potential: Spectral signatures of orange lichens could be mapped from drones, planes, or satellites to prioritize field surveys and reduce wasted ground effort.
Caveats: Lichen growth depends on environmental factors (microclimate, substrate chemistry, exposure) and species vary by region. The Alberta findings come from ironstone-rich microfossil bonebeds and should be validated across other rock types, climates, and continents. Satellite detection also depends on image resolution, timing (seasonality), and distinguishing lichens from other orange materials (soil, vegetation, or man-made surfaces).
These promising results illustrate a creative, interdisciplinary approach — combining paleontology, ecology, and remote sensing — that could accelerate fossil discovery while reducing time and cost in the field.
Lead image: Pickles, B.J., et al., Current Biology (2025). Originally reported in Nautilus.