From: "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: qilongia@yahoo.com
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
CC: stefanpickering2002@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: dinosaur vision
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002 16:49:40 -0800 (PST)
Stephan Pickering (stefanpickering2002@yahoo.com) wrote:
<Strange that, in the literature on the subject of dinosaur vision (UV and
otherwise), an interesting source has gone unmentioned, as far as I can
tell: Stanley Martin Ritland, 1982. The allometry of the vertebrate eye.
Ph.D. disertation, Univ. Chicago, 1885 pp [in 4 vols.]>
Largely because dissertations don't count as papers, and are often
discouraged from citation. However, directly referring to use of eye
anatomy and allometry in extinct animals, Motani has gone to some length
in working on eye anatomy in ichthyosaurs, and the present experts on
*Architeuthis* (giant squid) have used such data to infer the habitat of
the animal, along with other data. However, more relevant to dinosaurs and
perhaps the only actual paper on any dinosaur eye and its vision
capability, is this:
Rowe, M.P. 2000. Inferring the retinal anatomy and visual capacities of
extinct vertebrates. _Palaeontologica Electronica_ 3(1): 43pp.
Mickey Rowe, our own list administrator, has put his own opthamalogical
expertise to the drawing board in using Witmer's EPB to work out likely
eye acuity and vision capability issues.
Other refs on fossil eyes using allometry and inferrence:
Motani R. 2000. Rulers of the jurassic seas. _Scientific American_ Dec.
2000: 52-59.
Motani R.; Rothschild, B.M.; Wahl, W., Jr. 1999. Large eyes in deep
diving ichthyosaurs. _Nature_ 402: 747.
Motani R. 2001. What ichthyosaurs saw. _Aera Mook_ 66: 148-152. [In
Japanese].
Cheers,
=====
Jaime A. Headden
Little steps are often the hardest to take. We are too used to making
leaps in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do. We
should all learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather
than zoom by it.
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