Dinosaur senses primitive birds like "Archaeopteryx" and "Hesperornis". The optic nerve was large in "Carcharodontosaurus". Among dinosaurs, theropods had exceptionally large eyes. Deinonychosaurians, especially troodontids, had forward-facing eyes, suggesting stereoscopic vision and improved depth perception. Tyrannosauroid snouts allowed for a 55˚ binocular field of view, less than a modern human but more than their hadrosaurid prey. Dinosaur senses Dinosaur senses are difficult subjects of study for paleontologists since soft tissue anatomy rarely fossilizes. The three semicircular canals of the inner ear of "Allosaurus fragilis", when viewed from the side, had a subtriangular outline. This subtriangular inner ear configuration is present in "Carcharodontosaurus",
Specimens of Archaeopteryx suggest that it had some black colouration which included the coverts (or possibly the secondary remiges). Carney pointed out that this is consistent with what we know of modern flight characteristics, in that black melanosomes have structural properties that strengthen feathers for flight. The preservation of the fossil feather is unusual. In contrast to the feather imprints found on the full skeletons of "Archaeopteryx", the isolated feather is preserved as a dark film, which could be composed either of organic matter (as in most fossil feathers) or as inorganic minerals. Though it is theoretically possible to determine which it is,