MadSci Network: Evolution
Query:

Re: Did the Triceratops have any special color?

Date: Mon Jul 2 17:03:50 2001
Posted By: David Lovelace, Undergraduate, Geology/Zoology, Wyoming Paleontological Association
Area of science: Evolution
ID: 991775261.Ev
Message:

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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