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

Posted on 11/17/2005 4:01:41 PM PST by Nasty McPhilthy

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.

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

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coprolite; coprolites; dinosaur; dinosaurs; godsgravesglyphs; india; paleontology; titanosaur; toomuchinformation
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To: Thumper1960

You think Jim Jones was a Christian?


41 posted on 11/17/2005 5:05:23 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: Stultis

I am saying what scientists are so excited about today will likely be tossed aside because it was wrong tomorrow. But that's science, isn't it?


42 posted on 11/17/2005 5:07:18 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852

Yes.


43 posted on 11/17/2005 5:09:02 PM PST by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
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To: toddlintown

Dung, is the sound bells make...ding-dong.....except when bell
is flat. then it goes dung-dong.


44 posted on 11/17/2005 5:11:06 PM PST by Duffboy
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To: mlc9852

It's not like scientists have completely re-written everything about how they understand the world with this finding. We simply now know that grass probably existed 10 million years before we thought it did.

Also, what's wrong with revising your ideas in light of new evidence? Would you rather we still held the view that the sun revolves around the earth?


45 posted on 11/17/2005 5:14:06 PM PST by Quick1
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To: toddlintown
Who's Dung?

Korean guy, really sharp.

46 posted on 11/17/2005 5:16:20 PM PST by humblegunner (If you're gonna die, die with your boots on.)
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To: mlc9852
Oh, another anti-Christian. Ho hum.

Nonsense.
Christianity is not in any way singular, I deal with it as I do with all Near Eastern mystery religions, from Mithraism to Islam. They are for the credulous and the insecure.

So9

47 posted on 11/17/2005 5:21:04 PM PST by Servant of the 9 (Trust Me)
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To: Nasty McPhilthy
They smoked it too...


48 posted on 11/17/2005 5:23:54 PM PST by HairOfTheDog (Join the Hobbit Hole Troop Support - http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net/ 1,000 knives and counting!)
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

Yes! See my above :~D


49 posted on 11/17/2005 5:25:37 PM PST by HairOfTheDog (Join the Hobbit Hole Troop Support - http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net/ 1,000 knives and counting!)
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To: Nasty McPhilthy
Harry Reid is a pile of dung from a grass smoker.
50 posted on 11/17/2005 5:25:53 PM PST by msnimje (Bob Woodward is the Grinch who stole Fitzmas.....................................................)
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To: Servant of the 9

I was once incredulous and insecure. But, not anymore!


51 posted on 11/17/2005 5:28:57 PM PST by Nasty McPhilthy (Those who beat their swords into plow shears….will plow for those who don’t.)
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To: Servant of the 9

The pride of man is a wonder to behold.


52 posted on 11/17/2005 5:29:34 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

The klintonicus did smoke grass, however the kennedisaurus tried to bottle and drink it, possibly leading to its extinction.


53 posted on 11/17/2005 5:29:37 PM PST by Brett66 (Where government advances – and it advances relentlessly – freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: LonePalm
Former leader of Red China.

We should lessen our dependance on foreign dung.

54 posted on 11/17/2005 5:37:23 PM PST by impatient
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To: impatient

All your dung are belong to us.


55 posted on 11/17/2005 5:43:39 PM PST by Nasty McPhilthy (Those who beat their swords into plow shears….will plow for those who don’t.)
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To: mlc9852
"I know that. That's what makes it so undependable."

So when the bird flu shots become available, you won't have one because undependable science developed them?

56 posted on 11/17/2005 5:45:01 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
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To: manic4organic
Well, at least we got the straight poop from those scientists.

We got the “straight up” poop too... see the grass???


57 posted on 11/17/2005 5:55:14 PM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: Wiseghy

See #57 for an updated fossil record...


58 posted on 11/17/2005 5:58:39 PM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: muir_redwoods

I currently have no plans to have a bird shot vaccination since from what I understand, they are not yet available. And since I don't live with poultry, I'm not too worried. Lots more people die from regular flu every year than have died from the bird flu. And if it is similar to the 1918 strain, wouldn't we already have some immunity to it?


59 posted on 11/17/2005 5:58:42 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: HairOfTheDog
Great cartoon -- I miss Larson's work. They look like teen dinos, in the Jurassic High parking lot, out back of the motor shop.
60 posted on 11/17/2005 6:02:30 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA (")
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