Cheers for going extinct? Why wine may not exist if dinos didn’t die off

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Wine lovers have the dinosaurs to thank as their extinction allowed grapes to spread around the world, according to a new study.

Nine new species of fossil grapes have been discovered in South America, including the oldest ones ever found in the Western Hemisphere.

The fossilized seeds found in Colombia, Panama, and Peru date from 19 million to 60 million-years-old

One of the species is the earliest known example of plants from the grape family in the Western Hemisphere, say scientists.

They say the fossil seeds help show how the grape family spread in the years following the death of the dinosaurs.

Study lead author Dr. Fabiany Herrera, an assistant curator of paleobotany at Chicago's Field Museum, said: “These are the oldest grapes ever found in this part of the world, and they’re a few million years younger than the oldest ones ever found on the other side of the planet.

“This discovery is important because it shows that after the extinction of the dinosaurs, grapes really started to spread across the world.”

He explained that it’s rare for soft tissues to be preserved as fossils, so our understanding of ancient fruits often comes from the seeds which are more likely to fossilize.

The earliest known grape seed fossils, dated at 66 million years old - around the time when a huge asteroid hit the Earth triggering a massive extinction, were found in India.

Dr. Herrera said: “We always think about the animals, the dinosaurs, because they were the biggest things to be affected, but the extinction event had a huge impact on plants too.

“The forest reset itself, in a way that changed the composition of the plants.”

Dr. Herrera and his colleagues believe that the disappearance of the dinosaurs might have helped alter the forests.

Study co-author Dr. Monica Carvalho, assistant curator at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Palaeontology, said: “Large animals, such as dinosaurs, are known to alter their surrounding ecosystems.

"We think that if there were large dinosaurs roaming through the forest, they were likely knocking down trees, effectively maintaining forests more open than they are today,”

But without large dinosaurs to prune them, she said some tropical forests - including those in South America - became more crowded, with layers of trees forming an understory and a canopy.

Dr. Herrera says the new, dense forests provided an opportunity.

He said: “In the fossil record, we start to see more plants that use vines to climb up trees, like grapes, around this time.

The diversification of birds and mammals in the years following the mass extinction may have also aided grapes by spreading their seeds, according to the study published in the journal Nature Plants.

No fossil grapes had ever been found in South America until now.

Dr. Herrera said: “Grapes have an extensive fossil record that starts about 50 million years ago, so I wanted to discover one in South America, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

“I've been looking for the oldest grape in the Western Hemisphere since I was an undergrad student.”

In 2022, Dr. Herrera and Dr. Carvalho were conducting fieldwork in the Colombian Andes when a fossil caught her eye.

Dr. Herrera said: “She looked at me and said, ‘Fabiany, a grape!’ And then I looked at it, I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It was so exciting."

The fossil was in a 60-million-year-old rock, making it not only the first South American grape fossil but among the world’s oldest.

The fossil seed is tiny, but the researchers were able to identify it based on its particular shape, size, and other features.

The team conducted CT scans in the lab, showing its internal structure that confirmed its identity.

They named the fossil Lithouva susmanii - “Susman’s stone grape” - in honor of Arthur Susman, a supporter of South American paleobotany at the Field Museum.

Study co-author Dr. Gregory Stull said: "This new species is also important because it supports a South American origin of the group in which the common grape vine Vitis evolved.”

Dr. Herrera and his colleagues eventually described nine new species of fossil grapes from Colombia, Panama, and Peru.

He said: “The fossil record tells us that grapes are a very resilient order.

"They're a group that has suffered a lot of extinction in the Central and South American region, but they also managed to adapt and survive in other parts of the world."

He added: "These little tiny, humble seeds can tell us so much about the evolution of the forest."