Hi, Ben,
Good question. Of course we’ll never really know how the world looked to dinosaurs, or for that matter, what things looks like to a dog or cat or bird. In fact, if you think about it, you can’t even be completely sure exactly how another person sees, and whether that’s different from the way you see, because you can’t climb inside their head.
Good question. Of course we’ll never really know how the world looked to dinosaurs, or for that matter, what things looks like to a dog or cat or bird. In fact, if you think about it, you can’t even be completely sure exactly how another person sees, and whether that’s different from the way you see, because you can’t climb inside their head.
But scientists are able to study the structures in the eyes of modern animals and they’ve found out some interesting things.
Dogs, cats, deer, and other mammals do not have color receptors in their eyes that can sense the difference between green and red. So their view of the world may only distinguish light and dark, and maybe blue and yellow colors. Humans, apes, and monkeys have the addition of green / red color receptors, so we see those colors, too.
Most birds seem to have as many color receptors as we do. But some birds, like hawks, may have sharper distance vision based on how their eyes are structured, and some other birds, like owls, surely see much better in the dark than we do.
When it comes to color, some insects can see into the ultraviolet range, a kind of light that’s invisible to us. These unique abilities probably help bees and butterflies to see fruit or flowers. The mantis shrimp has 16 kinds of light receptors in its eyes, which apparently allow it to see images in polarized light and ultraviolet light that we can't see without special instruments.
A good clue is that if animals have bright colors on them, then others of their kind can see those colors. That's why most animals aren't colored red, except for monkeys, which are unusual among mammals for having the same sort of color vision that humans have.
Most birds seem to have as many color receptors as we do. But some birds, like hawks, may have sharper distance vision based on how their eyes are structured, and some other birds, like owls, surely see much better in the dark than we do.
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| Mantis shrimp from Amasian Science |
When it comes to color, some insects can see into the ultraviolet range, a kind of light that’s invisible to us. These unique abilities probably help bees and butterflies to see fruit or flowers. The mantis shrimp has 16 kinds of light receptors in its eyes, which apparently allow it to see images in polarized light and ultraviolet light that we can't see without special instruments.
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| Red faced Uakari Monkey from Flickr wbirt1 |
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| Inspector Myops from Dinotopia: The World Beneath |
Returning to dinosaurs, if some dinosaurs were a lot like birds in other respects, they might well have had the added color sensing abilities of modern birds. Not only that, they might have been as colorful as birds.
So the illustration of "dinosaur vision" in Dinotopia may not be too far off.
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Read more about color perception in animals at Amasian Science
or listen to the Radiolab episode on color.
Get a signed copy of Dinotopia for your inquisitive person in your life:
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time
Dinotopia: The World Beneath
or from Amazon: Dinotopia, A Land Apart from Time: 20th Anniversary Edition (Calla Editions)
So the illustration of "dinosaur vision" in Dinotopia may not be too far off.
-------
Read more about color perception in animals at Amasian Science
or listen to the Radiolab episode on color.
Get a signed copy of Dinotopia for your inquisitive person in your life:
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time
Dinotopia: The World Beneath
or from Amazon: Dinotopia, A Land Apart from Time: 20th Anniversary Edition (Calla Editions)
