Re: dinosaurs did eat grass

[Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>]

They have no clear idea what the early grasses looked like; all they have are 
the phytoliths. They know the area was a forest, so it was a forest plant. The 
only safe bet is that it doesn't look like a standard suburban lawn. 

The general description of the coprolite makes it sound like the titanosaur was 
feeding in the vacuum-cleaner mode, moving its long neck around and grabbing 
all the plant material it could. 

this is one of those papers that is going to get a lot of people thinking. 

At 10:39 PM +0000 11/17/05, Rodlox R wrote:
>>>A paper in this week's Science reports the latest Cretaceous titanosaurs 
>>>were eating grass. I didn't believe it at first either, but here's what I 
>>>found
>>>
>>>http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8336
>>
>>"Recognising that some of the phytoliths had distinctive shapes found only in
>>grasses "was a complete shock", says Caroline Strömberg, a phytolith 
>>specialist
>>at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. She told New Scientist
>>that the grasses the dinosaurs ate were herbaceous forest plants perhaps up to
>>several metres tall."
>>
>>So, something more like bamboo?
>
>maybe like the pampas grass of South America these days...which can be an 
>ornamental plant for gardeners.
>
>that's just my guess, based on conversation here.

-- 
Jeff Hecht, science & technology writer
jeff@jeffhecht.com
Boston Correspondent: New Scientist magazine
Contributing Editor: Laser Focus World
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