Dinosaurs, the author believes, .......

It is traditional to portray dinosaur skin as grey, the reason being that big animals today ,such as rhinos, hippos and elephants, are so coloured. But all of these mammals are colour-blind. Bright hues do not evolve among colour-blind species. Bright colours do evolve in animals that can see colours and that evolve rapidly; among such animals, many different species live together, and each species needs a unique way to advertise for mates. Birds are the best example. In each tropical habitat today, dozens of closely related tropical bird species must attract desirable mates from the appropriate gene pool. Brilliant patterns on the male birds are the rule. Did dinosaurs see colours? The closest living dinosaur relatives are birds and crocodilians, both of which can distinguish colours. Dinosaurs almost certainly were very birdlike in being visually oriented, colour-sighted animals.