Dinosaurs in the grass, alas

One of the most common “mistakes” in the prehistoric book is not wrong after all - dinosaurs did eat grass.

Textbooks have long taught that grasses did not become common until long after the dinosaurs died at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Depicting dinosaurs munching on grass was considered by experts to be as foolish as showing prehistoric humans hunting dinosaurs with spears.

But microscopic examination of fossilised dinosaur dung from India now shows that the last massive plant-eating dinosaurs munched heaping helpings of at least five different types of grass.

Posted by David on November 17, 2005 8:39 PM