Re: Mesozoic rainforests?

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@mailcity.com>]

In regards to Mesozoic rainforests....I'm not sure.

But, Dr. Kirk Johnson has discovered a rainforest in the modern Denver area 
that was between 64-56 million years old.  Not Mesozoic, but very close.  
Actually, it would be interesting to see if the climate that led to this 
rainforest was a result of the KT event.  With a rainforest the size Johnson 
estimates (he thinks it was large, but I don't know exactly how large) and the 
timing of almost immediately after the KT event (almost immediately after in 
geologic time), I would tend to think that MAYBE a KT climate change would have 
led to this rainforest.  But, I haven't seen any of the fossils and even if I 
did I couldn't even begin to tell.  

Has anyone seen any of Johnson's fossils?

And, by the way, the precise reason why Johnson hypothesizes that there was a 
rainforest was that he found thousands of plant fossils of leaves with drip 
tips.  Some of them are closely related to plants living today.  

Steve


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Steve Brusatte-DINO LAND PALEONTOLOGY
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