DINOSAURS ATE GRASS?

[Vlad Petnicki <bucketfoot-al@justice.com>]

EGAD!  Does this mean I have to throw out all my
Walking With Dinosaurs DVDs???!!!

OTOH, the task of finding suitable exterior locations
for my dinosaur diorama shots just got a LOT EASIER!
(Watch for them soon in Prehistoric Times...)


Dung Reveals Dinosaurs Ate Grass
LiveScience/Yahoo ^ | 11/17/05 | Bjorn Carey


Grass existed on Earth at least 10 million years
earlier than was known, based on a new discovery in
fossilized dinosaur dung.

It's also the first solid evidence that some dinosaurs
ate grass.

While dissecting fossilized droppings, known as
coprolites, researchers found tiny silica structures
called phytoliths. They are short, rigid cells that
provide support to a plant. This type is found
exclusively in grasses.

The discovery shows that five types of grass related to
modern varieties were present in the Gondwana region of
the Indian subcontinent during the late Cretaceous
period about 71 to 65 million years ago.

Museum redux

Before this discovery, 55 million-year-old grass
reproductive structures discovered in Tennessee were
the oldest grass fossils on record. 70 million-year-old
grass pollen has been discovered in Egypt.

âBut pollen are somewhat ambiguous,â study co-author
Caroline Stromberg of the Swedish Museum of Natural
History told LiveScience. âThey could also be from a
plant closely related to grasses.â

This discovery could also cause a major shake-up in
dinosaur dioramas around the world.

Until now there was no firm evidence that dinosaurs and
grasses coexisted, so scientists assumed that
herbivorous dinosaurs ate mostly trees, ferns,
flowering plants and cycads.

The droppings most likely came from titanosaur
sauropods which weighed more than 100 tons and were the
heaviest creatures to ever walk the Earth. Although
scientists knew from the shape of their teeth that
titanosaurs were plant eaters, this is the first proof
that dinosaurs snacked on grass.

Other grass eaters?

Not only does this finding call for a reconsideration
of dinosaur diets, but for early mammals as well. Many
fossilized mammals from the Gondwana region had teeth
that could have been used for grazing on grass.

Most grasses grow in dry upland areas where plants
seldom fossilize because of degrading chemical
processes in the soil. However, based on this new
finding, Stromberg believes that grass had spread to
the Gondwana region before India became geographically
isolated 80 million years ago.

Examinations on the distribution of living grasses
around the world point to South American origin,
although many scientists believe that grasses may have
been widespread before the continents split apart.

The discovery is detailed in the Nov. 18 issue of the
journal Science.

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