A group of scientists at Chicago’s Field Museum recently discovered fossilized grape seeds that could link dinosaurs to today’s abundant wine offerings.
A study from South America has discovered nine new species of fossil grapes dating back at least 19 million years – with the oldest found in a 60 million-year-old rock.
The study was led by Dr. Fabiany Herrera, Assistant Curator of Paleobotany at The Field Museum.
The discovery proved that grapes spread around the world after the extinction of the dinosaurs, according to a press release.
“They are the oldest grapes ever found in this part of the world, and are several million years younger than the oldest ever found on the other side of the planet,” Herrera said in the report.
The seeds found in Colombia, Panama and Peru may be 19 to 60 million years old, the press release said.
Dr. Monica Carvalho, associate curator at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology and co-author of the study, said that years ago, dinosaurs likely felled trees as they moved through forests, eventually leading to the extinction of ecosystems.
“We think that if large dinosaurs ran through the forest, they probably would have cut down the trees, making the forests more open than they are today,” she said in a media statement.
But once the dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago, areas of South America grew plants again and trees formed in close proximity, Herrera said.
“In the fossil record, we’re starting to see more plants around this time that use vines to climb trees, like grapes,” he said.
He went on to explain why he wanted to discover a “needle in a haystack” in South America.
“I’ve been looking for the oldest grapes in the Western Hemisphere since I was an undergraduate,” he said.
Herrera added that Carvalho was the one who found the first grape fossil.
He said she screamed, “Fabian, the grapes!”
He said, according to the press release: “I was looking at it [and] I was like, “Oh my God.”
Carvalho also said: “During the excavation of the fossil record in the New World tropics, we found seeds that are related to the grape family, which dates back to 60 million years ago. This led us to revise the fossil record of grapes in the New World,” according to the University of Michigan website.
She added: “The oldest seed we found is closely related to the large group that gave rise to commercial grapes, the subfamily Vitoideae.”
“We have this rich but previously little-known fossil record of grapes in the New World, and what we’re seeing is that this family has a complex history of extinction and dispersal in the New World,” she also said, according to the same source. .
After performing the CT scans, the scientists were able to confirm the fossil based on its shape, size and other unique characteristics, according to the press release.
After the first fossil was found, scientists found eight other new types of fossil grapes in the South American region.
Carvalho said the new study confirms the grape’s history in the Americas and the Caribbean, according to the University of Michigan website.
“After the extinction of the dinosaurs, there was a very large gap in the fossil record of grapes. About 50 million years ago, we see fossil grapes in North America and Europe,” she said.
“When the planet was warmer, grapes had a wider distribution in high northern latitudes, but we didn’t know much about the history of this group in tropical latitudes. That’s where our work comes in.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the study’s authors for further comment.
The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world.
Today, the US is home to nearly 11,700 wineries.
California, home to the highest population in the US and the most vineyards in the country, consumed the most wine in 2021, at more than 155 million gallons, according to VinePair, which also cited other sources.
In second place was Florida, which used 83.2 million gallons, and Texas took third place with 65.6 million gallons.
Today, the U.S. is home to nearly 11,700 wineries, according to the Wines Vines Analytics Winery Database.