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Here's hoping one or more of you dinolisters can help me out by carefully
answering a question (one comment first,
please):
COMMENT: Again and
again I hear (even on this list) that grasses did not develop until after the
cretaceous was 'gone with the wind'. (Or, should I say the
BOOM!?)
QUESTION: Yet, in
Philippe Taquet's wonderful, recent book, DINOSAUR IMPRESSIONS [Cambridge
University Press, 1998, ISBN 0 521 58372 1 hardback], I read on page 47, first
paragraph, "The first pollen grains from flowering plants are known from
the Barremian and Aptian deposits. Among these flowering plants are found
the first grass-like plants..."
I suspect Taquet knows
his subject, but because of what I'd earlier read (elsewhere), I wonder if
someone among you can proffer a reasonably contemporary reference that 'proves
him wrong'.
Conversely, I'd
appreciate it if someone can give me a reference that 'proves him
right'!
I want an accurate,
up-to-date answer for a reason of my own; but, ALONG ANOTHER AVENUE: If Taquet
is right, might this offer artists rendering at least Late Cretaceous scenes a
freer hand at the ground cover?
AN AFTER-THOUGHT: And,
finally, if Taquet IS right, is there any artist among us now sufficiently free
of the need for 'political correctness' as to be willing to produce a work (and
dare publish it) with -- say -- Hadrosaurs or Ceratopsians grazing
grass?
Please don't
flame me for that last question. But, after all, the best artists I've
even come across seemed to have the attitude of, 'To hell with political
correctness!'
How say you, one
or all? All facts and all artistic opinions are
welcome.
Thanks,
Ray
Stanford
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