(Humphrey 1984: 146-7)
"It may go without saying that, in a world without colour, animals would have no use for colour vision, but it does need saying that in a world without animals that possessed colour vision there would be very little colour. The variegated colours which characterize the earth's surface (and make the earth perhaps the most colourful planet in the universe) are in the main organic colours, carried by the tissues of plants and animals- and most of these life-born colours have been designed in the course of evolution to be seen ….the most striking colours of nature, those of flowers and fruits, the plumage of birds, the gaudy fishes of a coral reef, are all 'deliberate' evolutionary creations which have been selected to act as visual signals carrying messages to those who have the eyes to see them. The pigments which impart visible colour to the petals of a dandelion or a robin's breast are there for no other purpose."
"It may go without saying that, in a world without colour, animals would have no use for colour vision, but it does need saying that in a world without animals that possessed colour vision there would be very little colour. The variegated colours which characterize the earth's surface (and make the earth perhaps the most colourful planet in the universe) are in the main organic colours, carried by the tissues of plants and animals- and most of these life-born colours have been designed in the course of evolution to be seen ….the most striking colours of nature, those of flowers and fruits, the plumage of birds, the gaudy fishes of a coral reef, are all 'deliberate' evolutionary creations which have been selected to act as visual signals carrying messages to those who have the eyes to see them. The pigments which impart visible colour to the petals of a dandelion or a robin's breast are there for no other purpose."
RSS Feed
