RE: 11th specimen of Archaeopteryx

[Anthony Docimo <keenir@hotmail.com>]

> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Betreff: Re: 11th specimen of Archaeopteryx
> Datum: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:52:15 -0500
> Von: Clair Ossian <clastic@verizon.net>
> An: <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
> 
> Hmmm...I suggest you try to sit in or build a nest in a cycad.
> 
> I grow a number of species and have seen and handled many other species.
> Cycads commonly have inflexible fronds and leaflets that are generally
> sharp, jagged, and very easily inflict bloody wounds on mammals (me) when
> the plants are handled.

Most days, when I see people say how hazardous cycads are, I'm reminded of the 
dinosaur books that say (South American) sauropods fed from forests of Monkey 
Puzzle Trees  (which I'm told are verrry slow growing)
 
I don't doubt that Mesozoic cycads and Monkey Puzzles grew in such a way as to 
discourage herbivores - but I don't think they were identical in all ways to 
their modern kin.