A 52-million-year-old fossilized fruit discovered in Patagonia

 

 

 

The plant, a type of Physallis, was found on the site of an ancient rainforest in Patagonia. The plant belongs to the Solanaceae family, family of flowering plants which includes tabacco, medicinal plants and flower gardens.

 

 

 

Dr. Peter Wilf, Professor of Geosciences at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) led the team who discovered the ancient bay and said it is the only fossil fruit ever found in this group of plants, which now numbers more than 2,000 species. Emphasizing that no one knew that such a delicate fruit could be fossilized.

 

 

 

"There is no doubt that they represent the first physalis fossils in the world and the first fossil fruits of the water lily family. Physalis is a branch of the water lily family, which means that water lilies as a whole, unlike what has been thought, are much older than 52 million years. "

 

 

 

On the site the research is conducted by Pen University, Museo Palentologico Egidio Feruglio, Cornell University, for a decade.