Re: How did gymnosperms contribute to the success of angiosperms?

My initial response was to say this was the wrong question to be asking. 
Gymnosperms were the dominant forest trees of the Permian, Triassic, and 
Jurassic, the majority of the age of dinosaurs, but then in the Cretaceous 
angiosperms appear in the fossil record and these flowering/fruiting plants 
quickly became the dominant terrestrial vegetation.  So in one sense 
gymnosperms contributed to the success of angiosperms by being less 
successful than angiosperms.  
In another sense, pollen (dispersable males) and seeds, broad leaves, 
insect pollen vectors, animal seed dispersers, wood vessels, and 
flower-like reproductive structures were all invented by gymnosperms, yet 
all these adaptations are considered characteristic of angiosperms.  
However, no gymnosperm group possesses all these characters together, and 
some features are quite uncommon and atypical of gymnosperms as a whole. So 
 gymnosperms contributed to the success of angiosperms by originating many 
angiosperm features and by being the ancestors of angiosperms.  So have you 
thanked your ancestors today?