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news How forgotten Colorado fossils may rewrite part of plant evolutionary history

How forgotten Colorado fossils may rewrite part of plant evolutionary history


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Botanists and paleontologists, led by researchers from CU Boulder, have identified a fossil chili pepper that may rewrite the geography and evolutionary timeline of the tomato plant family.

The team's findings, published last month in the journal New Phytologist, show that the chili pepper tribe (Capsiceae) within the tomato—nightshade (Solanaceae)—family is much older and was much more widespread than previously thought. Scientists previously believed that chili peppers evolved in South America at most 15 million years ago, but new research pushes that date to at least 50 million years ago—and suggests that chili peppers were in fact present in North America at that time.



New Phytologist publication: R. Deanna e.a. Fossil berries reveal global radiation of the nightshade family by the early Cenozoic

Summary:
  • Fossil discoveries can transform our understanding of plant diversification over time and space. Recently described fossils in many plant families have pushed their known records farther back in time, pointing to alternative scenarios for their origin and spread.
  • Here, we describe two new Eocene fossil berries of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) from the Esmeraldas Formation in Colombia and the Green River Formation in Colorado (USA). The placement of the fossils was assessed using clustering and parsimony analyses based on 10 discrete and five continuous characters, which were also scored in 291 extant taxa.
  • The Colombian fossil grouped with members of the tomatillo subtribe, and the Coloradan fossil aligned with the chili pepper tribe. Along with two previously reported early Eocene fossils from the tomatillo genus, these findings indicate that Solanaceae were distributed at least from southern South America to northwestern North America by the early Eocene.
  • Together with two other recently discovered Eocene berries, these fossils demonstrate that the diverse berry clade and, in turn, the entire nightshade family, is much older and was much more widespread in the past than previously thought

I currently have no access to the full publication. Perhaps we could poke her for some seeds 😶
 
No, but I'm already thinking of the ebay scam business I'm going to set up with these new findings ☺️ Dinosaur-era pepper DNA extracted from fossilized solanaceous remains that was combined with capsicum DNA to "fill up the gaps".
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Huh, that is true… the paper confidently identifies that fossil as Lycianthoides calycina.

Why do the news articles, and even the quotes from the researchers, refer to it being a Capsicum?? I feel like we’re missing something.
 
Found it:

The Solanaceae is the only family that has species with the combination of a truncate calyx (having no lobes) and tooth-like appendages, and the only extant species with these features belong to Capsicum and Lycianthes. The three fossils all share submarginal calyx appendages forming awl-shaped teeth, the rounded shape of the calyx base, and the broadening of the pedicel on the insertion with the calyx.

The new fossil taxon cannot be assigned to a particular living genus because these traits are found in both Capsicum and Lycianthes and the fossil is also morphologically different to both, thus we described it in a new genus.

My emphasis. Interesting!

(And shame on me for skimming the first read.)
 
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Huh, that is true… the paper confidently identifies that fossil as Lycianthoides calycina.

Why do the news articles, and even the quotes from the researchers, refer to it being a Capsicum?? I feel like we’re missing something.
I have a double digit IQ,but learned in the last few years that these old rags sell headlines. They know people get political advice from memes and that the majority of our society do not read past the headlines.
 
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