Ancient Grape Seeds Discovered

Researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago, the University of Michigan, the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Florida Museum of Natural History have discovered fossilized grape seeds that are between 60 and 19 million years old. The study’s findings published in the journal Nature Plants.

It is known that grapes began to spread around the world shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs. The oldest grape seeds were found in India and date back 66 million years, which coincides with the end of the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era, when a large asteroid hit the Earth.

The fossil seeds were studied using CT scanning, which allowed them to determine their internal structure and confirm that they belonged to grape species. Scientists have suggested that the disappearance of dinosaurs contributed to the change in forest ecosystems, making them denser and more favorable for the spread of grape plants around the world, including in the Western Hemisphere.

A total of nine new species of fossil grape varieties from Colombia, Panama and Peru were described. Fossilized seeds belonging to the species Lithuanian Susmaniiconfirm the South American origin of the group to which the cultivated grape belongs. These fossils also show that the grape is a very resilient plant group that has managed to adapt and survive despite numerous biodiversity crises.