I happened across this paper today as a random event. It's about color vision in different in the animal kingdom. It makes a fascinating read. I thought that homeschoolers (and others!) might like it.
Link to PDF of cool paper Here's part of the abstract:
In the past, the colors that humans could see clouded scientists� study of animals� color perception. Leaving that bias behind has led to new insights about how and why the color vision of animals evolved. This paper provides a brief introduction to color vision, the genetics of color vision in humans, what colors other animals see, and how scientists study color vision. We examine the consequences of having color vision, including speciation, loss of olfactory capabilities, and sexual selection.
Highlights:
* Some animals (such as some frogs and some rodents) can see UV light.
* Some animals, especially birds, have five classes of color cones in their eyes (compared to our three), giving them exquisite color vision: "They see hues that we cannot imagine."
* It's possible that primates lost some of our olfactory (smell-related) sensitivity when we developed better color vision.
The paper has handy definitions of terms right before the references.
Here's the complete reference:
Ellen J. Gerl and Molly R. Morris (2008) Causes and Consequences of Color Vision
Evolution: Education and Outreach 1(4):476-486.
