Re: Gallery and Commentary for Copenhagen Mamenchisaurus

[Danvarner@aol.com]

frank@blissnet.com (frank bliss) asks:

 << I understand that this question is not actually relevant to the point 
of the discussion at hand in this thread but.......  since I haven't 
been instructed on this point for about 20 years......   I was always 
under the impression that the grasses didn't arrive on the scene until 
after the Cretaceous. When did they "crop up" in the fossil record? >>

       As I understand it, grasses first appeared in the Paleocene or 
"thereabouts" (whatever that means), but become abundant in the Miocene epoch 
about 
20 million years ago. Those animals (like horses) that began to feed on the 
silica-rich grasses grew "long in the tooth" to counter the increased wear. 
Much 
of the modern world and its inhabitants began to come into focus during the 
Miocene. DV