Re: dinosaurs did eat grass

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronald Orenstein" <ron.orenstein@rogers.com>
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 2:04 AM

> More specifically, if these were early forest grasses, they may have
> lacked the mineral deposits that make modern grasses is so hard on
> the dentition of mammalian grazers.

These mineral deposits are just what phytoliths are. On the other hand, 
grass-type phytoliths could be older than the grass shape of the whole 
plant. Maybe what the titanosaurs ate was an unspectacular forest-floor herb 
that happens to be the closest "known" relative of the grass-shaped 
grasses???

> I presumed that there is no evidence of anything resembling
> hypsodont-type adaptations in dinosaurs?

No... but you wouldn't necessarily expect that in animals that grow teeth 
like others grow hair... and the gondwanatheres were hypsodont.