# Evolution of grasses...



## HieroGlyph (Feb 12, 2006)

In my Feb issue of Sci-Am, there's an article about grasses, that links back to some slightly older news I had missed. My guess is that talking about grasses would bore the socks off almost everyone, but these simple plants have always made me wonder... You dont see dinosaurs grazing grasses. But maybe this is no longer so true...

To quote from 'The Guardian':

*"Fossilised dung proves that dinosaurs ate grass* 

[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]*Kate Ravilious
Friday November 18, 2005
The Guardian* 

[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Scientists raking through some 65m-year-old Indian dinosaur dung have found the first definite proof that dinosaurs ate grass. 
Caroline Strömberg, from the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, led a team that found distinctive silica structures called phytoliths in fossilised sauropod dung, which can only have come from grass. The results, published in the journal Science today, show that the dinosaur had dined on five different species of grass, as well as munching its way through conifers and palms. All five species of grass are found growing worldwide today."

There is more information and postulation 'out there', but this finding can have deeper impact than at first it seems...[/FONT]


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## Foxbat (Feb 12, 2006)

I'm, no expert but I believe we have a lot to thank the humble grasses of this world for. Isn't it the case that they also helped bind the soil - preventing wind erosion and allowing the accumulation of nutrients within?

And now we find they kept some Dinosaurs in gastronomic satisfaction!
Perhaps we should start a grass appreciation society.....but then, some folk might get the wrong idea...


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