Dinosaur Extinction 65 Million Years Ago May Have Helped Facilitate the Spread of Grapes Around the World [Study]

Dinosaur Extinction 65 Million Years Ago May Have Helped Facilitate the Spread of Grapes Around the World [Study]
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/eflon (Alex from Ithaca, NY))

Grapes spread worldwide after dinosaurs went extinct.

Dinosaur Extinction May Have Contributed to Grapes' Worldwide Spread

In a new study, a team of scientists discovered nine new fossil grape species from Panama, Peru, and Colombia that originated between 60 and 19 million years ago. One of these species in the Andes of Colombia is the first known instance of grape family (Vitaceae) plants in the Western Hemisphere. The study's fossil remains, which are preserved seeds, provide insight into the distribution of Vitaceae plants after the demise of the dinosaurs.

In the wake of the mass extinction, some tropical forests, particularly those in South America, began to overgrow since the dinosaurs that had previously regulated plant density were no longer there. In this new ecological setting, grape plants started to proliferate.

Around this time, more plants that cling to trees via vines-like grapes started to appear in the fossil record. According to Fabiany Herrera, the study's lead author and assistant curator of paleobotany at the Negaunee Integrative Research Center of the Field Museum in Chicago, these animals may have helped grape plants by dispersing seeds during the period following the mass extinction event. Another feature of this period was an explosion of diversity among birds and mammals.

The Colombian Andes species Lithouva susmanii, identified as the earliest known grape fossil from the Western Hemisphere, is noteworthy as the modern grapevine originated from it.

According to study co-author Gregory Stull with the National Museum of Natural History, Vitis originated in South America. Vitis, a genus of flowering plant species, is vital to the modern economy because it produces grapes, which can be consumed raw or used to make wine.

Herrera said the discovery was significant because it showed that grapes started to spread worldwide after the dinosaurs went extinct.

Mónica Carvalho, co-author of the study and assistant curator at the University of Michigan's Museum of Paleontology, added that the rapid extinction of the dinosaurs may have changed the forest's composition in a way that made the Vitaceae family more successful. It is well-recognized that large animals, like dinosaurs, can change the ecosystems around them. They hypothesize that if massive dinosaurs were prowling the forest, they were probably uprooting trees to keep the forests more open than they are now.

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Dinosaur Dominated Earth Before Extinction

Charles Darwin thought that evolution produced "endless forms most beautiful." Certain adaptations repeatedly appeared spontaneously, which were more advantageous to dinosaurs and helped them dominate the Earth during their reign.

Researchers from Brazil examined the vertebrae of dinosaurs, which are said to have increased their strength and decreased their body weight. The researchers compared the aerated bones of the dinosaurs to corrugated cardboard used in package deliveries from online retailers like Amazon. They're robust but lightweight.

Tito Aureliano, a Brazilian paleontologist, and his associates found that dinosaur bones were hollow and packed with tiny air sacs. This trait is considered to have played a significant role in their survival and has independently evolved several times in several lineages. However, dinosaurs only lasted for around 165 million years before going extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago.