WASHINGTON - A GROUP of paleontologists has used a new scientific method to reconstitute the vibrant colours that adorned the plumage of a tiny dinosaur over 150 million years ago, a study said on Thursday.

The researchers analysed colour-imparting structures called melanosomes in the fossil of a tiny feathered dinosaur and discovered the creature sported a grey body, a reddish-brown Mohawk crest and facial speckles, and white feathers with black-spangled tips on its wings and legs.

"This was no crow or sparrow, but a creature with a very notable plumage," said Richard Prum, a professor of ornithology, ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University and a co-author of the study, which appeared in the February 4th online edition of Science.

"This would be a very striking animal if it was alive today."

The team of paleontologists analysed the fossil of an Anchiornis huxleyi dinosaur, which lived in China in the late Jurassic period and, at just 12cm tall, is the smallest dinosaur known to researchers.

The study examined 29 feather samples from the dinosaur and measured and located within them the granular-like structures called melanosomes that contain melanin - a light-absorbing pigment in animals, including birds.

The team then compared the melanosomes in the dinosaur to those that impart certain colours in living birds, using existing data, which allowed them to discern with 90 per cent certainty the colours of the petite creature.

The study found that the colour pattern on the diminutive dinosaur's legs strongly resemble those found on the modern day Spangled Hamburg chicken, and believe the pattern served to help with communication and attracting mates, Professor Prum said.