The extinction of the dinosaurs paved the way for grapes – and wine – to ‘spread around the world’

The extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago may have helped facilitate the spread of grapes around the world, researchers have suggested.

In a study published Monday in the journal Natural plantsa team of scientists describes nine new species of fossil grapes from Colombia, Peru and Panama that date from 60 to 19 million years ago.

One of these species — from the Colombian Andes — represents the oldest known example of plants from the grape family (Vitaceae) in the Western Hemisphere.

The fossil remains documented in the study, which consist of preserved seeds, shed light on how Vitaceae plants spread in the post-dinosaur era.

“These are the oldest grapes ever found in this part of the world, and they are several million years younger than the oldest ever found on the other side of the planet,” lead study author Fabiana Herrera, assistant curator of paleobotany. at the Field Museum at the Negaunee Integrative Research Center in Chicago, he said in a news release.

He added: “This discovery is important because it shows that after the extinction of the dinosaurs, grapes really began to spread around the world.”

When plants are found as fossils, they are almost always in the form of seeds because the soft tissues often decompose quickly.

The history of the Vitaceae family dates back to about 66 million years ago, which is the age of the oldest known grape seed fossils – originally found in India.

The date of these fossils roughly coincides with the catastrophic mass extinction that wiped out most plant and animal species on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs (the avian dinosaurs or birds managed to survive and are thriving today). The extinction event that fundamentally changed the trajectory of life on Earth is thought to have been caused by the impact of a giant asteroid.

“We always think about the animals, the dinosaurs, because those were the biggest things that could have been affected, but the extinction event had a huge impact on the plants as well,” Herrera said. “The forest reset in a way that changed the composition of the plants.”

The sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs potentially impacted forest composition in a way that allowed the family Vitaceae to succeed, the authors suggest.

“Large animals such as dinosaurs are known to alter the ecosystems around them. We think that if large dinosaurs were running through the forest, they probably would have cut down the trees, effectively keeping the forests more open than they are today,” the co. author Mónica Carvalho, associate curator at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, said in a press release.

However, after the mass extinction, some tropical forests—including those in South America—began to become more crowded due to the absence of dinosaurs, which had previously kept plant density in check. It was in this new ecological context that vines began to spread.

“In the fossil record, we start to see more plants using vines to climb trees, like grapes, around this time,” Herrera said in a news release.

The post-mass extinction period was also characterized by an explosion of diversity among birds and mammals, which may also have benefited vine plants, as these animals could help disperse seeds.

The discovery of the oldest known grape fossil from the Western Hemisphere – a Colombian species in the Andes that was named Lithova susmania—is significant because it supports a South American origin for the group in which the Vitis vine evolved, according to study co-author Gregory Stull with the National Museum of Natural History.

Vitis is a genus (or group of species) of flowering plant species that today play an important economic role as a source of grapes that are either directly consumed or made into wine.

Have an animal or nature story to share? Newsweek? Have a question about paleontology? Let us know at science@newsweek.com.