The co-evolution of plants and mammals examined
A report at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Raleigh, North Carolina, explores the idea that the evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) during the Cretaceous Period had a profound effect on the early diversification of mammals during the same time frame. Paleontologists investigate life on earth, often discovering and describing new forms and evolutionary sequences from the depths of time. Questions about the co-evolution of ecologically-connected groups, however, can be particularly challenging to answer. A new report by David Grossnickle, a graduate student at the University of Indiana Bloomington, presents an elegant study that correlates the fossil record of the mid-Cretaceous flowering plants with concurrent patterns of mammalian evolution.