Dinosaur Eyes

[andrewsaurus rex]

Do you think dinosaur eyes had circular pupils, like birds and mammals or pupils that were slits, like the majority of reptiles?  I am painting eyespots on the frill of one of my ceratopsian figures and it occurred to me that making the pupil part a slit rather than a dot, might be the way to go.

[Lynx]

Depends. Currently, the most accurate (which isn't saying much) way of depicting dinosaurs is with circular pupils, but occasionally you see speculative depictions with side-ways, goat-like pupils (mainly on ceratopsians).

Afaik most reptiles don't have slit pupils, but again, it depends. Some snakes have circular pupils, and others have slit ones. I would stay with the current circular pupil.

Edit: Most lizards and snakes have circular pupils, to clarify.

[Leyster]

Given that the pupil shape seems to be linked, among others, with closeness to the ground, that tall terrestrial predators have round pupils (lions, tigers, wolves and such), and that the kind of theropods big enough to pressure a ceratopsian into developing such a mechanism is unlikely to be closer to the ground than like a tiger or a wolf, I'd say that round pupils are the safer bet. See Banks et al, 2015

[andrewsaurus rex]

interesting comments, thanks.  So should I ask about eye colour?   

[Lynx]

Yellow or white would be best

[Halichoeres]

The sclera is generally white, but the iris can be almost any color. Birds, lizards, snakes, frogs, and fishes have irises in blue, green, yellow, red, orange, any shade of brown ranging to almost black.

[andrewsaurus rex]

thanks, that narrows it down.....lol.