makes me wonder how they come up with them other then lizards look that way now

is that a good enough reason ?

I don't think you can know I mean I dunno but I think that dinosaur designs are basically a rough sketch on the skeleton...I dunno though.

I think it's just a guess

*shrugs* I really don't know

Many dinosaur colors are just pure speculation, but its practical that the head crests of dinos like Dilophosaurus and Crylophosaurus were brightly colored to attract mates. Maybe even the sails or Spinosaurus and Ournanosaurus were used for mating

for all we know, some may have had color control like a cameleon...

i guess we will never really know

I thought Jurassic Park looked pretty good, but all we can do is speculate. Hell they could have been pink with purple stripes, although I doubt this.

We do know for mating, bright colors are the best.

I also thought the dino's in JP looked 'realistic'...

im gonna paint myself bright pink then

Good luck et!

Well... if someone had a timemachine we just could have gone to the past and see them by ourself.

Someday I'm gonna draw a great big ferocious T.Rex munching on some prey, and the Rex is going to be bright pink, just for the sake of it.

I'm wearing a pink shirt right now..


Anyway, you draw that picture then come show it to us.

i wish they looked like this




there's your pink T-Rex

haha!

Quite so. Also - and this is important - most reptiles and birds have color vision. Most mammals do not, so mammals often have drab coloration. Birds and reptiles, however, are extremely colorful. Since dinosaurs are closely related to both birds and reptiles, it seems reasonable to assume that many of them had color vision as well. And when you have color vision, you can use color to differentiate your species from another.

I think it's likely that dinosaurs were, on the whole, colorful creatures. Whereas they are usually depicted in drab olive green or dusty brown, they probably had numerous spots, stripes, or other patterns of brown, black, white, green, red, orange...some used to find mates, some used for cameoflauge, some used as a warning to other creatures.

-Pilgrim

also, aren't the sail's thought to have been a way to keep them cool? as the sail 'bones' are hollow, allowing blood to circulate therefore cooling them down.

That is the prevailing theory, although not the only one. However, a sail can serve more than one function. It could help regulate body temperature AND have bright markings to attract mates.

-Pilgrim

yeah, s'why I said "also" at the beginning of my post, as to carry it on and name another feature they could have been used for.

Sails were probably also used for mating, if indeed the dinosaurs were "dino-blooded".

Pilgrim, the only problem I have with Warning stripes is that no dinosaur is venemous or such..."Warning Colors" would act more like a dinner bell for large theropods.

No dinosaur is known to have been venomous. Given the incomplete nature of the fossil record, that cannot be assumed to be absolute. At any rate, I was speaking hypothetically.

-Pilgrim

Well, any KNOWN dino is not venemous...