you say tomato, I say 52-million year old fossilized tomatillo

January 11, 2017 12:38 PM

The first discovery of fossilized fruits from the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, representing a new species of lantern fruit, has been made by paleobotanists researching Eocene plant diversity in Gondwanan Patagonia. The specimens, since dubbed Physalis infinemundi, were extraordinarily well-preserved in the surrounding 52.2-million year old rock, dating the existence of the Physalis genus back 40 million years earlier than scientists had previously believed.

For a brief overview of the discovery, please enjoy this 1.5-minute video from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [CC, no transcript]

Learn more about paleobotany at UC Berkeley's Virtual Paleobotany Lab.

posted by amnesia and magnets (10 comments total)

TFA: words written by smart people saying important things
my idiot brain: dinosaurs might have eaten spaghetti sauce!
posted by poffin boffin at 12:46 PM on January 11, 2017 [10 favorites]

Eocene is post dinosaur, but it is as close as you can get. So maybe.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:55 PM on January 11, 2017

My brontosaurus bolognese is one step closer to reality.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:09 PM on January 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

52-million year old fossilized tomatillo

something something my ex-wife's cooking!!!!!
posted by beerperson at 1:20 PM on January 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

Tomatillos means it was more like stegasaurus salsa verde
posted by rmless at 1:31 PM on January 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pretty sure this would have been used in a giant ground sloth salsa verde.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:33 PM on January 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Tomatillos means it was more like stegasaurus salsa verde

Ahh, so maybe they used those big back plates for dipping!
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:34 PM on January 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

tl;dr: BBQ sauce available 40 million years earlier than previously believed possible.
posted by ardgedee at 2:11 PM on January 11, 2017

I think this is the most important point in this article: “The age of these fossils was established based on radiometric dating using the argon–argon method in associated geological material and generating a difference of more than 30 million years in relation to the age calculated using molecular methods, […]"

Does this mean that all dating using molecular clocks is seriously inaccurate?
posted by monotreme at 2:24 PM on January 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

At 11 calories per medium fruit no fat, hardly any sodium and cholesterol with plenty of iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and lots of fiber, plus lots of vitamins C and K, tommy-toes are pretty good relish for your BBQ sloth burgers.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:05 PM on January 11, 2017