If you enjoy a glass of wine or two, you may have the extinction of the dinosaurs to thank for it.
Grapes have been “intertwined with the story of humanity for millennia”, said CNN, but that “may not have been the case” if dinosaurs hadn’t died out.
World domination
When an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, it “wiped out the massive, lumbering animals”, said the broadcaster, which set the stage for other creatures and plants to “thrive” in the aftermath.
Having discovered and analysed fossilised grape seeds that range from 19 million to 60 million years old, experts now believe that these ancient grapes established a foothold in Earth’s dense forests after dinosaurs stomping around them.
The scientists think dinosaurs had probably been “knocking down trees, effectively maintaining forests more open than they are today”, said Mónica Carvalho, a co-author of the paper, so their extinction allowed trees to grow taller and develop closed canopies. This change “profoundly altered” plant evolution, especially plants which produce fruit.
Meanwhile, the increased diversity of birds and mammals in the years following the dinosaurs’ extinction may have also helped with the spread of grapes, because these creatures were “eating them and pooing out their seeds”, said the BBC.
It was already known that grapes were first domesticated by humans only several thousand years ago, said Fabiany Herrera, the study’s lead author, but now we know the fruit has a much longer evolutionary history. It was “only after the extinction of the dinosaurs that grapes started taking over the world, he told USA Today.
Climate crisis
As well as gazing into the past, the experts are looking to the future. By increasing their understanding of the origins and adaptations of plants in years gone by, scientists can better understand how they may fare during the climate crisis.
Herrera said he hopes that “most living plant seeds adapt quickly to the current climate crisis” because although the fossil record of seeds is “telling us that plants are resilient”, they can also completely “disappear from an entire continent”.
It had been a tough search in the “thick forests of Latin American countries”, because the team were looking for grape seeds, which are “extremely challenging to find because of their small size”, said USA Today.
But for Herrera this was all part of the fun. “I love to find really small things because they are also very useful”, he said, and “grape seeds are one of those things”.
So next time you are enjoying a glass of wine, be sure to raise your glass to dinosaurs because if they hadn’t had the decency to disappear from the planet, you may never have got to enjoy your favourite tipple.