how did they know the colors of dinosaurs?
In: Biology
For the most part we don’t.
This is the reason why some iconic dinosaurs are depicted with different colors in every picture we make of them. Google images of T-rex and you will find a wide variety of colors, skin textures, feathers and poses.
Artist depiction of dinosaurs are mostly guesses based on what living creatures with similar lifestyle and habitats look like.
Originally dino images where colored based on what living reptiles may have in the way of colors and the idea that camouflage and blending in the background is common among predator and prey. More modern images have more bird-like features.
For a few rare cases we have some bits of skin or feathers, but that mostly gives us some hints as to textures and not necessarily color.
We don’t actually. We don’t even know if the muscle structures and body fat are correct.
It’s buzzfeed, so not the most reliable news source, but [here are a few examples of modern animals reconstructed from their skeletons](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/natashaumer/dinosaur-animals) in a similar way we reconstruct dinosaurs
Some [soft tissues](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-shocker-115306469/) have been found. Some feathers, some skin, blood etc. But this is extremely rare and usually not much. However some inferences can be made from those findings by comparing the fossils to modern (similar) animals with similar skin pigments, and the rest is just extrapolated as a somewhat educated guess.
Short, short answer: We don’t.
This was a fascinating listen: [https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/welcome-to-jurassic-art/](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/welcome-to-jurassic-art/), and the book it references ([All Yesterdays](https://www.amazon.com/All-Yesterdays-Speculative-Dinosaurs-Prehistoric/dp/1291177124/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=all+yesterdays&linkCode=sl2&linkId=90ee80d225245d82b011a6a812f9b284&qid=1628525265&sr=8-1)) seems pretty cool.
The slightly-less short answer (discussed in even less short form in those links) is that not only do we not know color, but we also don’t know what their shape was — we have bones, but we don’t know what their fatty deposits may have done to their body shape. The prime example is that a future “paleontologist” reconstructing a camel from only a skeleton would not be able to tell it had a hump.
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