Cretaceous angiosperms -- further data

[StephanPickering@cs.com]

       Alas, because we cannot measure the metabolic status (basal metabolic rates responding to changes in environmental temperatures) of pre-K/T dinosaurs, does not mean our imaginations are stultified, does not mean we are transposing their biomes onto Recent biomes. Indeed, the dromaeosaurs are found in a wide variety of environments (inferred from the fossil record), adapting to econiches, as were countless other taxa. If environmental signals can be gleaned from the areas where fossil taxa are found (meaning that excavation teams should have present paleobotanists et al. to provide an insight into the ecological environment--something the Hell Creek Project is doing), then the data should be explicated and provided for peer review. Thus, while I do not believe all dromaeosaurs, and other theropods, were pack-hunters, it is reasonable to assume they oft!
en!
!
 resorted to it to bring down prey  (perhaps healthy and not wanting to be a meal). Speculation, to be sure, but I am not presupposing anything, and interpolations re: canids are not relevant. I am interested in relevant facts re: the dinosaurs' world(s).
       The subject of what the non-carnivorous dinosaurs ate is of importance. The gymnosperms ("naked seed") are those taxa having seeds not enclosed in fruit (the ovary). 145-67mya, they were displaced by angiosperms. The genus Populus consists of deciduous (leaf-shedding), rather high trees, the poplar, cottonwood, and a small clade of the aspen. All of the known species hybridize with each other, so that "pure" species are non-existent. The male and female flowers are on different trees. Populus belongs to the family Salicaceae, the Recent taxa now numbering four genera. 
       For those paleontologists interested in the subject of knowing what our beautiful beasts may have eaten, there are websites:
       P.F. Stevens (Missouri Botanical Garden) is:
             www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/welcome.html
       M.J. Donoghue's phylogenetic studies of angiosperms are at:
             phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/green_plants/embryophytes/angiosperms/angiosperms/
       Another illuminating database is:
             snr.uvm.www/mac/plant-id/angiosperms/angiosperms.html
       The International Organisation of Palaeobotany's Plant Fossil Record (which provides one with the ecological
       tools to make deductions):
             ibs.uel.ac.uk/ibs/palaeo/pfr2/pfr.htm
       The Australia-based botanists Leslie Watson and M.J. Dallwitz have very thorough analyses (with references)
       of angiosperms (and grass taxa elsewhere on their delta wegsite):
             biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/angio
       I have, previously, given some useful print references, and, in the course of my book research, these have been of importance on exploring dinosaur diets:
       Angiosperm Phylogeny Research Group, 1998. An ordinal classification for the families of flowering plants.
             Annals Missouri Botanical Garden 85:531-553
       I.W. Bailey, 1944. The development of vessels in angiosperms and its significance in morphological research.
             American Jour. Botany 31:421-428
       Rolf M. Dahlgren, 1980. A revised system of classification of the angiosperms. Botanical Journal [London]
             80:91-124
       Gwenda L. Davis, 1966. Systematic embryology of the angiosperms (John Wiley), 1-528
       Gunnar Erdtman, 1966. Pollen morphology & plant taxonomy. Angiosperms (Hafner Publishing Co.), 1-
             520
       B.M. Johri, ed., 1984. Embryology of angiosperms (Springer-Verlag), 1-830
       B.M. Johri, K.B. Ambegaokar, P.S. Srivastava, eds., 1992. Comparative embryology of angiosperms
             (Springer-Verlag), 1-1221 [in 2 vols.]
       P.G. Ladd, 1994. Pollen presenters in the flowering plants--form and function. Botanical Journal [London]
             115(3):165-195
       Jean-F. Leroy, 1983. The origin of angiosperms. Taxon 32:169-175
       A.L. Takhtadzhian, 1969. Flowering plants: origin & dispersal [trans. C. Jeffrey] (Smithsonian Institution
             Press), 1-310
       A.L. Takhtadzhian, 1980. Outline of the classification of flowering plants (Magnoliophyta). Botanical Review
             46:225-239
       Leslie Watson and M.J. Dallwitz, 1991. The families of angiosperms: automated descriptions, with interactive
             identification and information retrieval. Australian Systematic Botany 4:681-695
       In perusing these sources, suddenly one's perspective on what kind of world the dinosaurs were living in changes. Of course, we can't compare worlds...but it's interesting to do so anyway.