Oldest Known Nightshade Found in Patagonia

[Oxytropidoceras]

When did tomatillos start wearing papery jackets?

Christian Science Monitor,  ‎January 6, 2017‎

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2017/0106/When-did-tomatillos-start-wearing-papery-jackets

 

Fossil fruit from 52 million years ago revealed

By Helen Briggs, BBC News - ‎Jan 5, 2017‎

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38511034

 

Ancient tomato ancestors found in 52-million-year-old Patagonian stone

Waterton Daily Times, January 6, 2016

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/national/ancient-tomato-ancestors-found-in-52-million-year-old-patagonian-stone-20170106

 

The paper is:

 

Wilf, P., M. R. Carvalho, M. A. Gandolfo, and N. R. Cúneo, 2016,

Eocene lantern fruits from Gondwanan Patagonia and the early

origins of Solanaceae Science. vol. 355, no. 6320, pp. 71-75

DOI: 10.1126/science.aag2737

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6320/71

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Oxytropidoceras
corrected formatting

[Virgilian]

The fossil fruit is not a tomotillo per se, technically; it's rather a member of the tomotillo family. Same genus Physalis, of course, but it's more allied botanically with the ground cherry. And the big significance is not that it helps define the older age limits of the nightshade family (which also includes tomatoes and potatoes, of course) at some 52 million years, but rather that the fossil ground cherry proves molecular clock genetic calculations all wrong--in this specific example, anyway. According to molecular clock analyses, the extant tomotillo group, to which the fossil belongs, should have first appeared around 11 million years ago, at most. The fossil ground cherry described is approximately 52 million years old, which is early Eocene in geologic age.