RE: Sauropods and Cycads??

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> RAY STANFORD
>     At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington,
> D.C., there has for years been on display a magnificent, multi-trunk
> specimen of Cycadiodea marylandica that unquestionably came out
> of the late
> Early Cretaceous of Maryland.

Although _Cycadeoidea marylandica_ is a source of paleobotanical pride for
the Old Line State (second only to the Early Cretaceous flowers, also from
the Potomac Group), it isn't a cycad.  The cycadeoids resemble cycads (hence
the name), but were a different group of "gymnosperms".  In fact, recent
evidence suggests that cycadeoids were much closer to angiosperms.

>From http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/seedplants/cycadophyta/cycadsy.html
"The Bennettitales, another extinct group of seed plants which is sometimes
called the Cycadeoids, was at one time classified in the Cycadophyta, but
have since been found to be only superficially similar in their overall
morphology -- their growth habit and leaf structure are similar to that of
the cycads, but their reproductive organs suggest a closer relationship with
the flowering plants."

The cycadeoids are extinct, while the cycads proper live on.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.inform.umd.edu/SCHOLAR/programs/elt.html
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796