So, as scientists joke, the next time you uncork a bottle of wine, don’t forget to raise a glass to the extinct dinosaurs.
In a new study, researchers from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago suggested that the extinction of dinosaurs, caused by the impact of a massive asteroid, played a role in the spread of grapes. About 66 million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid, larger than Mount Everest, struck the Earth. It wiped out three-quarters of all life on our planet, including the dinosaurs. As a result, populations of small mammals and certain birds increased, and grapevines began to flourish.
How is this possible? The researchers reported that the disappearance of prehistoric reptiles allowed for the growth of more trees, which in turn facilitated the thriving of grapevines. “This discovery is significant because it shows that after the extinction of the dinosaurs, grapes really began to spread across the world,” the scientists wrote in their report.
The team discovered fossilized grape seeds in Colombia, Panama, and Peru, dating back between 60 and 19 million years. They paid special attention to seeds belonging to the oldest species of the grape family in the Western Hemisphere, as reported by the Daily Mail.
The found seeds also helped scientists understand how the grape family evolved. Fabiani Herrera, the lead author of the study, noted, “These are the oldest grape varieties ever found in this part of the world, and they are several million years younger than the oldest varieties found on the other side of the planet.”
The researchers pointed out that grapes first appeared in the fossil record around the same time the Chicxulub asteroid collided with Earth. They suggested that this major catastrophe may have triggered a transformation in forest species, as the giant animals likely toppled tall trees during their movements. Without dinosaurs, forests became more lush, which encouraged the further development of climbing plants like grapes. The researchers believe that the diversification of birds and mammals after the mass extinction may have also contributed to the spread of grapes. “We always think about animals, especially dinosaurs, because they suffered the most, but the extinction also affected plants,” Dr. Herrera said. According to him, the forest recovered, and its plant composition changed. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Plants.