Remote sensing of lichens with drones for detecting dinosaur bones

Abstract

Advances in palaeontology and evolutionary biology are often linked to the discovery of new fossils, yet these discoveries are typically serendipitous¹. Here, we report that lichens can serve as biological indicators of vertebrate fossils in western North America and can be identified using remote sensing. Lichens are symbioses between fungi and algae (and/or cyanobacteria) that play important ecological roles² and colonise many substrates, including fossils³. Preferential colonisation of dinosaur bones by lichen with vibrant orange pigmentation (Figure 1A,B) has been recognised anecdotally for decades (Darren H. Tanke, personal communication). We found that the spectral reflectance profiles of these lichen pigments and the preferential association between modern lichens and ancient bones can be used to detect dinosaur fossils by remote sensing, for which we propose new spectral indices.