News Paleontology

Ancient flowering plants may have used dinosaurs to spread their seeds

Fossils upend a long-held theory about angiosperm evolution

An illustration shows a leafy scene with a rodent in the foreground and a dinosaur's head peeking out in the background, each nibbling on fruits.

Extinct rodentlike mammals and dinosaurs may have been some of the vertebrates lured by flowering plants' fleshy fruits over 74 million years ago.

Brian Engh

By Jake Buehler

Fruit salad may have been on the menu for some dinosaurs.

Over 74 million years ago, there was a richer garden of fruit- and seed-bearing plants than scientists thought.