Re: Monkey see (colors), Monkey do (was RE: Marsupials see colors)

[Denver Fowler <df9465@yahoo.co.uk>]

----- Original Message ----
From: "Mickey Rowe;893-2446" <mrowe@lifesci.ucsb.edu>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Monday, 27 March, 2006 9:57:33 PM
Subject: Re: Monkey see (colors), Monkey do (was RE: Marsupials see colors)

>Denver Fowler <df9465@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>} I thought most if not all birds possessed UV vision:

>With all due respect, I'd say you thought wrong.  Look for review
>articles by Hart, such as:

>Hart, N. S. (2001).  "The Visual Ecology of Avian Photoreceptors",
>     _Progress in Retinal and Eye Research_, 20(5):675-703.

>Where you might be confused is that birds (like most non-primates)
>generally have higher sensitivity than humans do to light with
>wavelengths shorter than 400 nm.  That's because there are two reasons


Ok. i think my confusion can also be attributed to a recent nature news feature 
(dalton 2004), Dalton states that 320-400nm is near UV wavelengths, then goes 
on to  talk about birds' UV vision & sensitivity, whereas I suppose he means 
near-UV. Also in the Bristol Uni website 
(http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/vision/4d.htm) it states that:

"Bird colour vision differs from that of humans in two main ways.               
 First, birds can see ultraviolet light. It appears that UV vision              
  is a general property of diurnal birds, having been found in over 35          
      species using a combination of microspectrophotometry, electrophysiology, 
               and behavioural methods."

Andrew Bennett lectured us alot at Bristol (about 6 years ago now), and this 
was his pet topic, so to speak. The bird Uv reflectance stuff is really 
interesting i think. Alot of his papers are available as PDFs through the above 
website.

D.