If you enjoy snacking on raisins or a glass of wine, you might want to thank the dinosaurs. Recent scientific discoveries suggest that the extinction of these prehistoric giants played a pivotal role in the spread of grapes around the world.
Researchers have unearthed some of the oldest known grape seeds, dating from 60 to 19 million years ago, in regions such as Colombia, Panama, and Peru. These fossilized seeds shed light on the ancient distribution and evolutionary history of grapes. Interestingly, the earliest known grapes, originating in India, are about 66 million years old.
Fabiany Herrera, an assistant curator of paleobotany at the Field Museum in Chicago and the study’s lead author, exclaimed, “These are the oldest grapes ever found in this part of the world, and they are a few million years younger than the oldest one’s ever found on the other side of the planet.” He added, “This discovery is important because it shows that after the extinction of the dinosaurs, grapes started to spread across the world.”
The timing of grape proliferation is substantial. The first appearance of grapes in the fossil record coincides with the asteroid impact that struck Earth 66 million years ago, leading to a mass extinction event. This event eradicated three-quarters of all life on the planet, including dinosaurs, and dramatically altered Earth’s biological landscape.
Impact of Dinosaur Extinction on Plant Life
Herrera noted that the extinction event also had a deep impact on plant life. “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,” he said. “The forest reset itself, in a way that changed the composition of the plants.”
Dinosaurs’ Role in Shaping Forest Ecosystems
The disappearance of large dinosaurs may have transformed forests in significant ways. Mónica Carvalho, a co-author of the paper and assistant curator at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology, exclaimed, “Large animals, such as dinosaurs, are known to alter their surrounding ecosystems. We think that if large dinosaurs were roaming through the forest, they were likely knocking down trees, effectively maintaining forests more open than they are today.”
Post-Dinosaur Era: A New Environment for Grapes
With the dinosaurs gone, forests became denser, allowing vine plants like grapes to flourish by climbing trees. This change also supported the diversification of birds and mammals, which helped spread grape seeds further.
Lithouva, a fossil grape from Colombia, dates back around 60 million years and represents the earliest known grape from the Western Hemisphere. Discoveries like these offer valuable understandings of the grape family’s evolutionary history and highlight how the extinction of dinosaurs enabled their widespread distribution.
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