Okay, so I looked it up and as it turns out, yes, they think they can actually judge a dinosaur’s color(s) based on fossilized melanosomes. Different shaped melanosomes correspond to different colors and “finishes” (iridescent, matte, glossy, etc), and they compare them with melanosomes from living animals to try and figure out what color(s) they might have had.
Okay, so I looked it up and as it turns out, yes, they think they can actually judge a dinosaur’s color(s) based on fossilized melanosomes. Different shaped melanosomes correspond to different colors and “finishes” (iridescent, matte, glossy, etc), and they compare them with melanosomes from living animals to try and figure out what color(s) they might have had.