Fruits in the Cretaceous

[bk090@freenet.carleton.ca (David Brez Carlisle)]

There were plenty of fruiting bodies  in the Cretaceous, when
Pachys were around, some of them true fruits (i.e. frm
angiosperms).  Most of the them were naked seeds o r cones from
conifers.  Some forests were dominated  by cycads.  Modern cycads
produce large "fruits" with a  pit about as big as that of a peach 
covered with a brightly colored soft flesh.  The only trouble is
that they contain a neurotoxin, the casuative ag ent of Guam  disease.
During World War II the local p eople in Guam were starving and some
ate these  seeds, leading to neurological disorders.  Perhaps a diet
of cycad "fruits" is the real cause of the extinction of the dinos!

RECENT  REPTILE FINDS IN ALBERTA, CANADA

In the last week a late Cretaceous ornithomimid has been reported
in Alberta.  The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeo is excavating it.  I
have o nly seen  newspaper reports.  The same museum has also found a mid 
Cretaceous Plesiosaur,
complete with skull, which is unusual.  Both these fossils are said to
be the "most complete" yet.


nybody know more?

David

--
>From: David Brez Carlisle
bk090@Freenet Carleton.CA