Paleobotanists have described nine new species of the Vitaceae family. Vitaceae It is based on fossil seeds from four tropical palaeoflora sites, dating back 60 to 19 million years. Rithuva Susmani This new species, discovered in Colombia, is the oldest evidence of a Vitaceae plant in the Western Hemisphere.

Soft tissues, like those of fruit, rarely preserve as fossils, so scientists often learn more about ancient fruits through their seeds, which fossilize more easily.

The oldest known grape seed fossils were found in India and date back to 66 million years ago.

“We always think about animals, we think about dinosaurs, because they were the ones most affected, but the extinction also had a big impact on plants,” said Dr. Fabianie Herrera, a paleobotanist at the Field Museum.

“The forest has reset itself and changed its plant composition.”

Dr Herrera and his colleagues hypothesize that the extinction of the dinosaurs may have prompted changes in the forests.

“Large animals like dinosaurs are known to alter the ecosystems around them,” said Dr. Monica Carvalho, a paleobotanist at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology.

“We think that if large dinosaurs roamed the forests, they would likely have cut down trees and maintained more open forests than we have today.”

“But with no large dinosaurs around to cut down forests, some tropical forests, including those in South America, became densely wooded, with layers of trees forming an understory and a canopy.”

“These new dense forests provided an opportunity, and the fossil record shows that around this time we start to see an increase in plants that use vines to climb trees, like grapes,” Dr Herrera said.

“The diversification of birds and mammals in the years following the extinction may also have helped spread grape seeds.”

The researchers examined fossilized grape seeds from the 60-million-year-old Bogotá Formation in Colombia, the 41-million-year-old Tonosi Formation in Panama, the 28-million-year-old Máncora Formation in western Peru, and the 19-million-year-old Cucaracha Formation, exposed at the Gaillard Cut in the Panama Canal.

They were able to identify at least nine new species of the Vitaceae family, including: Rithuva SusmaniThis provides the oldest evidence of grapes in the Western Hemisphere.

“This new species is important as it confirms the South American origin of the group that includes the common grape vine. Grapes “It evolved,” says Dr Gregory Staal, a paleobotanist at the National Museum of Natural History.

“These are the oldest grapes ever found in this region, millions of years younger than the oldest found on the other side of the world,” Dr Herrera said.

“This discovery is important because it shows that grapes really started to spread around the world after the dinosaurs went extinct.”

The new species' place in the grapevine family tree indicates that its evolutionary journey has been a checkered one.

“The fossil record shows that grapevines are very resilient plants,” Dr Herrera said.

“They are an endangered group in the Latin American region, but they have been able to adapt and survive in other parts of the world.”

“Given the mass extinctions facing the Earth today, studies like this one are valuable in revealing patterns about how biodiversity crises will unfold.”

“But the other thing I like about these fossils is that these tiny, humble seeds can tell us a lot about forest evolution.”

of study Published in the journal Natural plants.

_____

F. Herrera othersCenozoic Vitaceae seeds reveal a long history of extinction and dispersal in the Neotropics. Natural plantsPublished online July 1, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41477-024-01717-9