[no subject]

[Michael Sternberg <mstern@cnw.com>]

Grasses, as we know them, *did not* arise in the Cretaceous.

"Although clear evidence for the development of grasslands does not appear
prior to the mid-late Miocene, modern tribes of grasses are known from
megafossils from the late Paleocene-early Eocene (Crepet and Feldman 1988)"
Behrensmeyer et al, 1992, p. 427 University of Chicago Press.

Pteridophytes and some herbaceous angiosperms dominated ground cover during
the Late Cretaceous.

Regards,
Michael

At 11:52 PM 6/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
>It's my understanding that the Cret. saw the first spreading of
>grasses.If so what does the paleobotanical evidence show as the earliest
>areas to see the emergence of grasses and when did they become the
>prominent ground cover?---Thanks, Sean
>
>