The spicy story of the chili Piper nigrum may have just been rewrite following the breakthrough of a rare fossilized Chuck Berry , Lycianthoides calycina . It ’s a member of the chili pepper tribeCapsiceae , which was originally thought to have emerge in South America 15 million years ago , but now looks as if it was heat up up North America at least 50 million years ago .
As a member of the nightshade familySolanaceae , which is also home totomatoes , it does n’t just push back the egress of the chili pepper but also provides fresh insight into the evolutionary timeline of tomato plant . The discovery blossom at the CU Boulder Museum of Natural History in 2021 where a squad , admit postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolutionary biology Rocío Deanna , came across a curious specimen they could n’t quite place .
The fossil had come from the Green River Formation in northwest Colorado and southwestern Wyoming , a geological gem trove made up of the sediments of ancient lakes . It ’s consider one of the most important fossil sites for Eocene specimens , according to theUniversity of California Berkeley .
After finding one fossil chili pepper, the team found more. Image credit: S Manchester
Among the singular discovery uncover here was a fogy that showed characteristics that smacked of a particular phallus of theSolanaceaefamily , decked out with modest spikes at the end of its fruiting stem . The team expect themselves , could it really be a fossilchili ?
“ At first , I thought ‘ No way ! This ca n’t be true , ’ ” Deanna enunciate in astatement . “ But it was so characteristic of the chili con carne capsicum pepper plant . ”
As if discover one fogy chilli was n’t surprising enough , the squad behind a new paper eventually discover two more , all of which came from the Green River Formation . The sediments here range from 34 to 56 million years old , but the similarities the specimens shared with nightshade fossils call up from the Esmeraldas Formation in Colombia put their outgrowth at around 50 million years ago .
“ These chili peppers , a species that we thought arose in an evolutionary blink of an optic , have been around for a crack long time , ” said Stacey Smith , senior author of the paper and associate professor of evolutionary biology at CU Boulder . “ We ’re still occur to bag with this raw timeline . ”
Another puzzling factor the squad is make out with is how the chili pepper made it to North America . yield - eating birds are a possibility , already call up to have dispersed many berry - producing plants by either eating or wear out them . It ’s possible that these pepper may have enjoy their own peachy avian flight , acting as a worthful imagination for athirst forager while also hitching a free ride to faraway nation .
The study is write in the journalNew Phytologist .
