One hundred million years ago the development of flowers changed our world. Like the spores and pinecone seeds, the first simple flowers were wind pollinated. The Cretaceous era's innovation was a seed within a flower fertilized by pollen—a seed that was already an "embryonic plant packed in a little enclosed box stuffed full of nutritious food." Not only could it be carried by the wind, it could attach itself to animals with hooks, or attract animals with its fruit.
Animals responded to this change. Insects fed on and pollinated the plants and the flowers grew larger and more complicated in turn. Grasslands expanded and herbivores replaced the dinosaurs while birds developed beaks instead of teeth. The quote was from The Immense Journey written by Loren Eiseley and first published by Random House and then by Time Incorporated in 1962.
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AuthorI am a Northwest artist making collages from mulberry papers stamped by hand from original images that I have carved. Archives
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