MadSci Network: Evolution |
One of the most common questions paleontologists receive is what colour a dinosaur may be. Well, the short answer is we don't know. Most often the only part of the animal that is preserved are the bones and teeth. In very unique cases soft tissue (muscles and organs) can be fossilized as well. However usually these soft tissues are preserved as impressions in the sediment (dirt) that surrounds the animal. With such a small amount of information being fossilized it is very difficult to answer some questions about their lifestyles or their colour. What we can do is a little bit of educated speculation, though this will not tell us what the REAL colour of a dinosaur is, it can at least give some probably colours so that artists can reconstruct them. For Triceratops, and other ceratopsians we must look at there habitat. Where do we find there bones, what kind of environment is it? Once we determine that we can look for a modern analog (something that has a similar lifestyle today, in a similar environment). For ceratopsians it would seem that they live near and in areas that are probably dominated by large rivers, and expanses of floodplain deposits (lots of sand). A similar animal might be a rhinoceros, or even a water buffalo. So if we compare the colours of rhinos we may make an assumption that Triceratops may have been a greyish colour with perhaps some brown or "dusty" colours mixed in a variety of patterns. Perhaps the rosettes (big round bumps on its skin) that are found in skin impressions, may have had a more brilliant colour in the males, and a less brilliant in the females. If you want to get really creative add bit of patterning on the huge frills of the ceratopsians, they are big billboards for putting displays to attract mates, similar to what birds do today with bright plumage. I will include some links to a few paleo art pages: My friend Luis Rey http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~luisrey/html/proto.htm http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~luisrey/ John Sibbick's Studios http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/dinobase/picturesJS/pictJS25.html http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/dinobase/picturesJS/pictJS46.html http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/dinobase/picturesJS/dinopicturesJS.html
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