Why do humans see color and animals don't?

Answer 1

Cones, which is a photoreceptor that allows us to see color, is abundant in the human eye. However, some animals don't have cones in their eyes; rather they just have rods (which allow seeing black and white).

Answer 2

Birds see color (the ones that hunt in the day ... owls do not). Insects see color. Fish see color. I believe most reptiles and amphibians see in color. For the most part it is more a matter of whether the creature evolved in daytime or nighttime (where color vision is not that useful).

It is mostly mammals that are colorblind.

The best explanation for this is that mammals actually lost their color vision during the long period of time during the reign of the dinosaurs when mammals were just a handful of nocturnal rodent-like creatures.

The main exception to this ... the only mammals with color vision ... are the Old-World Primates (the monkeys and great apes of Africa and India). All New-World Primates (the South American monkeys ... there are no South American apes) are colorblind. The only exception is the South American howler monkey. However, the howler monkey has different genes for coding for color vision ... they occur on different chromosomes ... than the Old-World Primates.

What about humans? Well, they have the same exact structures and three photopigments (the specific protein that produces sensitivity to the specific wavelengths of red, green, and blue light) as the Old-World primates, and the genes that code for these red, green, and blue photopigments are located on the same chromosomes and locations as the Old-World Primates ... which is different from just about all other color vision on the planet (including the New-World Primates).

Hmm ... I wonder what could explain these astounding similarities between human color vision (the proteins, the structures, the specific locations of the genes) and color vision of old-world primates. What could it possibly be?

Answer 3

Animals see color, some just not as well. Cats, for example, see colors, but are better adapted for seeing in limited light (no, they can't see in total darkness). The degree of color detected will vary from animal to animal, according to individual survival needs and evolutionary development.

"The retina contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The rods are more numerous, some 120 million, and are more sensitive [to light] than the cones. However, they are not sensitive to color. The 6 to 7 million cones provide the eye's color sensitivity . . . " *

Answer 4

Each type of animal has a different range of colors it can see. While dogs theoretically see in only black and white, while many other animals see B/W and red only.
It's the iris that takes in the information, and the brain that chooses which colors to process.

Answer 5

The ability to perceive color comes from the presence and number of color-sensing cells in the eye. These are called cones. Many animals do, in fact, have cones. The other type of visual cells in the eye is rods. Rods enable you to see dark/light contrast.

The more cones an animal has in their eyes, the better their color perception is. Most diurnal (daytime) animals see in color. They have to in order to hunt. But nocturnal (nighttime) animals hunt at night, so they don't need color perception. They do, however, need rods to detect movement at night. Therefore most diurnal animals see in color and nocturnal (except for the owl) animals are color blind.

Answer 6

Your question assumes that animals don't see color.

I think all animals see color --- even the animals that scientists have said only see in black and white. I think the scientists are wrong. If animals don't see color, then what's the point of so much color in the world?

Answer 7

many animals also see color ( in fact most ) this assumption dates back a few decades - for example it has been found that dogs have color vision ( the range of colors vary greatly among animals and we do have a very broad color spectrum ) as more animals are tested in the future i am sure more will be found to have color vision ( note that black and white ain't all that bad - think gray-scale not black and white and it is more real world )

Answer 8

Primates generally see color because it helped them to find ripe fruit on a green background in their jungle environment.

Predators like cats don't see color because it doesn't help them to distinguish prey.

Their spatial frequency transfer function (=acuity) is low anyways. They emphasize motion perception.

For example, cats behave on several simple principles:
1. It if moves, act on it. It might be alive.
2a. If it is smaller, attack and try to eat it.
2b. If it is about the same size, try to fight or mate it (depending on gender relations and mood).
3c. If it is larger, run away.

In general, there is almost no animal that has motion perception. But there are only few animals (e.g. primates, lobsters) with good color perception.

Answer 9

I think you are forgetting about birds. We see in black an white when compaired to them. Every thing sees a level of color.

Answer 10

Seeing in black and white helps animals see in the dark. Whether its light or dark, they see just as well.