albinism & melanism (aka ebony & ivory?)

[Andrea Kirk <kirkam@wam.umd.edu>]

For some reason the strangest idea popped into my head this morning...
Albinism is known in archosaurs (well-known in birds, and I have seen an
albino alligator in my lifetime), so it's a pretty reasonable guess that
some dinosaurs were albinos, isn't it?  Yet I've never seen any
portrayed that way in reconstructions.  Imagine something like an
*Oviraptor* (I'm thinking of Luis Rey's neato version) colored in all
white and pink. Or even better (worse?) an albino therizinosaur. Just
when things couldn't get weirder...

On the same thought, is melanism documented in reptiles and birds? It's
pretty common in mammals (like all the black squirrels around PLS, right
Dr. Holtz? :-) but I don't recall ever seeing something like a black
alligator.

Andrea Kirk
University of Maryland
http://animedomain.com/xianghua

begin:vcard 
n:Kirk;Andrea
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
url:http://animedomain.com/xianghua
adr:;;;;;;
version:2.1
email;internet:kirkam@wam.umd.edu
fn:Andrea Kirk
end:vcard