Could Earth have had a greater axial tilt?
There is no evidence that Earth had a much greater axial tilt so long ago.  To my knowledge, the evidence for changes in the axial tilt of the Earth is based on ocean sediment cores (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hays ) and ice cores ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles#Axial_tilt_.28obliquity.29 ).  However, these only go back 100s of thousands of years.  There is no record that I know of that could be used to assess the axial tilt of Earth 100s of millions of years ago.  However, you could speculate that after the collision that Earth had that led to our moon, the axial tilt could have been much greater as a result.  However, all records that I have seen show that the axial tilt fluctuates from 22.1 to 24.5 degrees.