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Oldest grape seed fossil in the western world discovered
Ferrari Press Agency
Grapes 1
Ref 15970
01/07/2024
See Ferrari text
Pictures must credit: Fabiany Herrera
Fossil grape seeds up to 60 million years old are believed to be the oldest found.
And the fruit’s spread around the globe could be down to the dinosaur extinction/
The examples were found in the southern and central American countries of Colombia, Panama, and Peru.
One of these species represents the earliest known example of plants from the grape family in the Western Hemisphere.
The earliest known grape seed fossils were found in India and are 66 million years old — around when a huge asteroid hit the Earth, triggering the dinosaur mass extinction altering the course of life on the planet.
But without large dinosaurs to prune them, some tropical forests, including those in South America, became more crowded, with layers of trees forming an understory and a canopy.
These new, dense forests provided an opportunity.
Large animals, such as dinosaurs, are known to alter their surrounding ecosystem likely knocking down trees, effectively maintaining forests more open than they are today.
After the extinction the fossil record reveals more plants that use vines to climb up trees, like grapes, flourishing.
OPS: LThe earliest fossil grape from the Western Hemisphere, 60 million years old from Colombia. Top figure shows fossil accompanied with CT scan reconstruction. The team named the fossil Lithouva susmani which means “Susman’s stone grape,” in honour of South American Field Museum supporter Arthur T. Susman.
Picture supplied by Ferrari
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Pollyanna von Knorring/Ferrari Press Agency/Hepta |
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3 Iulie 2024 |
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3543 x 1917 (2.81 MB) |
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