Re: In Disguise

[Daniel Bensen <dbensen@gotnet.net>]

>>Dinosaurs probably spent more time hiding from one
another than fighting.<<
You'r going to get in trouble saying things like that.  Such statements
are exactly what got our litte community so worked up about walking with
dinosaurs.  Tread carefully.

>>Like chameleons today, some dinosaurs may have been
able to change color. I<<
I don't think so.  Of cource, there's no way to prove it one way or the
other, but dinosaurs are somwhere between crocodiles and birds, neither
of which has any color-change ability (nor do those groups have any
structures that could easily be used for color-changing).  The only
vertebrates that can change color  (aside from molting or shedding and
growing whole new dermal structures) are lizards (correct me if I'm
wrong, there).

I also think you should go into more detail about countershading; it is
a facinating development.  Countershading creates patterns of light/dark
in the exact opposite way the sun generally hits 3-Dimensional objects
(that is, from above).  The effect is that the 3D animal fades into two
dimensions, and is thus much harder to see then a solidly-colored
object.  There was a very interesting Gould essay published on this
subject, but I can't remember the exact time.

Dan