Refuting Creationism - Now It's 60-Million-Year-Old Grape Seed Fossils!

Lithouva - the earliest fossil grape from the Western Hemisphere, ~60 million years old from Colombia. Top figure shows fossil accompanied with CT scan reconstruction. Bottom shows artist reconstruction.

Photos by Fabiany Herrera, art by Pollyanna von Knorring.

Sixty-million-year-old grape seeds reveal how the death of the dinosaurs may have paved the way for grapes to spread - Field Museum

If you're a creationist cult leader whose livelihood depends on fooling scientifically illiterate simpletons into thinking Earth is just 10,000 years old and the creation myth in the Bible is literal science and history, about the last thing you need is a bunch of paleontologists to find 60-million-year-old fossil grape seeds and publish their findings in a peer-reviewed science journal.

Actually, the publication is the least of your worries because your dupes will never read anything remotely scientific in case it makes them begin to wonder if they could be wrong, but what do you do about the 60-million-year date? You lie about the scientists, obviously.

You tell your dupes that scientists just make up dates to suit their 'anti-God' agenda because they are all part of a massive Satanic conspiracy, confident that the same thinking defect that causes creationism in an adult also causes conspiracism. So you can be sure they'll fall for it, no matter the absurdity of the idea that millions of biomedical scientists and their assistants, the managers of all the major universities and research establishment around the world, the editors of science journals and all their staff, are in on the conspiracy and never break ranks and blow the whistle on it.

What information do you have on the origins and evolution of the Vitaceae? Origins and Evolution of the Vitaceae Family

The Vitaceae family, commonly known as the grape family, is a significant group of flowering plants comprising about 14 genera and approximately 900 species. This family is best known for the genus *Vitis*, which includes grapevines. Here is an overview of the origins and evolution of the Vitaceae:

Origins

1. Geological Timeframe:
   • The Vitaceae family is ancient, with origins tracing back to the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago. Fossil evidence suggests that early members of this family were already present in the late Cretaceous, around 85 million years ago.
2. Paleobotanical Evidence:
   • Fossilized leaves and seeds found in various parts of the world, including North America, Europe, and Asia, provide critical insights into the early existence and distribution of the Vitaceae. These fossils indicate that the family was widespread during the Late Cretaceous and the Paleogene periods.
3. Evolutionary Relationships:
   • Molecular phylogenetic studies indicate that the Vitaceae are part of the rosid clade within the order Vitales. This family is closely related to other families within the order, such as Rhamnaceae (buckthorns) and Leeaceae.

Evolutionary Adaptations

1. Climbing Habit:
   • One of the most distinctive features of the Vitaceae is their climbing habit, which they achieve through the use of tendrils. This adaptation allows them to exploit vertical space in forested environments, a feature that likely provided an evolutionary advantage in dense, competitive habitats.
2. Leaf Morphology:
   • Leaves of Vitaceae species show considerable variation, which reflects their adaptability to different environmental conditions. This morphological diversity has enabled the family to colonize a wide range of ecological niches.
3. Fruit Evolution:
   • The evolution of fleshy fruits in the Vitaceae is a key factor in their dispersal. These fruits are attractive to animals, which aid in seed dispersal. This mutualistic relationship has been crucial for the widespread distribution of the family.
4. Floral Characteristics:
   • The flowers of Vitaceae are typically small and inconspicuous, but they are highly efficient at attracting pollinators. The evolution of these flowers reflects a balance between attracting pollinators and minimizing resource expenditure.

Phylogenetic Studies

1. Molecular Phylogenetics:
   • Advances in molecular techniques have provided a more detailed understanding of the evolutionary relationships within the Vitaceae. DNA sequencing of various chloroplast and nuclear genes has helped clarify the phylogeny of the family, revealing both ancient lineages and more recent diversifications.
2. Biogeography:
   • Phylogenetic and biogeographical studies suggest that the Vitaceae likely originated in the Northern Hemisphere, with subsequent dispersal and diversification in both the Old and New Worlds. The distribution of various genera today reflects these historical biogeographic patterns.
3. Genetic Diversity:
   • The genetic diversity within the Vitaceae is considerable, reflecting both ancient evolutionary lineages and more recent adaptive radiations. This diversity is particularly evident in the genus *Vitis*, which includes both wild species and domesticated grapevines.

Domestication and Human Impact

1. Domestication of Grapevines:
   • The domestication of grapevines (*Vitis vinifera*) is one of the most significant developments in the history of human agriculture. This process began around 8,000 years ago in the Near East, leading to the cultivation of grapes for food, wine, and other uses.
2. Cultural Significance:
   • Grapevines and their products have had a profound impact on human cultures and economies. The cultivation and trade of grapes and wine have shaped civilizations, influencing social structures, trade routes, and cultural practices.
3. Modern Cultivation and Breeding:
   • Today, the breeding and cultivation of grapevines involve advanced techniques to enhance disease resistance, improve fruit quality, and adapt to changing environmental conditions. These efforts continue to shape the evolution of *Vitis* species.

In summary, the Vitaceae family has a rich evolutionary history characterized by ancient origins, diverse adaptations, and significant interactions with human societies. The combination of paleobotanical evidence, molecular phylogenetics, and biogeographical studies provides a comprehensive understanding of the origins and evolution of this important plant family.

So, to add to their embarrassment, here is the account of how these fossil grape seeds, the report of which is published in Nature Plants, from a Field Museum press release:

Sixty-million-year-old grape seeds reveal how the death of the dinosaurs may have paved the way for grapes to spread

Scientists describe nine new species of fossil grapes (60 to 19 million years old), including the oldest ones ever found in the Western Hemisphere

If you’ve ever snacked on raisins or enjoyed a glass of wine, you may, in part, have the extinction of the dinosaurs to thank for it. In a discovery described in the journal Nature Plants, researchers found fossil grape seeds that range from 60 to 19 million years old in Colombia, Panama, and Peru. One of these species represents the earliest known example of plants from the grape family in the Western Hemisphere. These fossil seeds help show how the grape family spread in the years following the death of the dinosaurs.

These are the oldest grapes ever found in this part of the world, and they’re a few million years younger than the oldest ones ever found on the other side of the planet. This discovery is important because it shows that after the extinction of the dinosaurs, grapes really started to spread across the world.

We always think about the animals, the dinosaurs, because they were the biggest things to be affected, but the extinction event had a huge impact on plants too. The forest reset itself, in a way that changed the composition of the plants.

Fabiany Herrera, lead author

Earth Sciences, Negaunee Integrative Research Center
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA

It’s rare for soft tissues like fruits to be preserved as fossils, so scientists’ understanding of ancient fruits often comes from the seeds, which are more likely to fossilize. The earliest known grape seed fossils were found in India and are 66 million years old. It’s not a coincidence that grapes appeared in the fossil record 66 million years ago–that’s around when a huge asteroid hit the Earth, triggering a massive extinction that altered the course of life on the planet.

Herrera and his colleagues hypothesize that the disappearance of the dinosaurs might have helped alter the forests.

Large animals, such as dinosaurs, are known to alter their surrounding ecosystems. We think that if there were large dinosaurs roaming through the forest, they were likely knocking down trees, effectively maintaining forests more open than they are today.

Mónica R. Carvalho, co-author
Assistant curator at the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology.
Museum of Paleontology and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

But without large dinosaurs to prune them, some tropical forests, including those in South America, became more crowded, with layers of trees forming an understory and a canopy.

These new, dense forests provided an opportunity.

In the fossil record, we start to see more plants that use vines to climb up trees, like grapes, around this time.

Fabiany Herrera.

The diversification of birds and mammals in the years following the mass extinction may have also aided grapes by spreading their seeds.

In 2013, Herrera’s PhD advisor and senior author of the new paper, Steven Manchester, published a paper describing the oldest known grape seed fossil, from India. While no fossil grapes had ever been found in South America, Herrera suspected that they might be there too.

Grapes have an extensive fossil record that starts about 50 million years ago, so I wanted to discover one in South America, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I've been looking for the oldest grape in the Western Hemisphere since I was an undergrad student.

Fabiany Herrera.

But in 2022, Herrera and his co-author Mónica Carvalho were conducting fieldwork in the Colombian Andes when a fossil caught Carvalho’s eye.

She looked at me and said, ‘Fabiany, a grape!’ And then I looked at it, I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It was so exciting

Fabiany Herrera.

The fossil was in a 60-million-year-old rock, making it not only the first South American grape fossil, but among the world’s oldest grape fossils as well.

The fossil seed itself is tiny, but Herrera and Carvalho were able to identify it based on its particular shape, size, and other morphological features. Back in the lab, they conducted CT scans showing its internal structure that confirmed its identity. The team named the fossil Lithouva susmanii, “Susman’s stone grape,” in honor of Arthur T. Susman, a supporter of South American paleobotany at the Field Museum.

This new species is also important because it supports a South American origin of the group in which the common grape vine Vitis evolved.

Gregory Stull, co-author
Department of Botany
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.

The team conducted further fieldwork in South and Central America, and in the Nature Plants paper, Herrera and his co-authors ultimately described nine new species of fossil grapes from Colombia, Panama, and Perú, spanning from 60 to 19 million years old. These fossilized seeds not only tell the story of grapes’ spread across the Western Hemisphere, but also of the many extinctions and dispersals the grape family has undergone. The fossils are only distant relatives of the grapes native to the Western Hemisphere and a few, like the two species of Leea are only found in the Eastern Hemisphere today. Their places within the grape family tree indicate that their evolutionary journey has been a tumultuous one.

The fossil record tells us that grapes are a very resilient order. They're a group that has suffered a lot of extinction in the Central and South American region, but they also managed to adapt and survive in other parts of the world. But the other thing I like about these fossils is that these little tiny, humble seeds can tell us so much about the evolution of the forest.

Fabiany Herrera.

Given the mass extinction our planet is currently facing, Herrera says that studies like this one are valuable because they reveal patterns about how biodiversity crises play out. This study was authored by Fabiany Herrera (Field Museum), Mónica Carvalho (University of Michigan), Gregory Stull (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution), Carlos Jarramillo (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), and Steven Manchester (Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida).

Fabiany Herrera (left) and Mónica Carvalho (right) at the fossil plant locality, holding the newly-discovered earliest grape from the Western Hemisphere.

Photos courtesy of Fabiany Herrera.

Sadly, the body of the paper in Nature Plants is behind an expensive paywall, so we only have the abstract:

Abstract
The remarkably diverse plant communities of the Neotropics are the result of diversification driven by multiple biotic (for example, speciation, extinction and dispersal) and abiotic (for example, climatic and tectonic) processes. However, in the absence of a well-preserved, thoroughly sampled and critically assessed fossil record, the associated processes of dispersal and extinction are poorly understood. We report an exceptional case study documenting patterns of extinction in the grape family (Vitaceae Juss.) on the basis of fossil seeds discovered in four Neotropical palaeofloras dated between 60 and 19 Ma. These include a new species that provides the earliest evidence of Vitaceae in the Western Hemisphere. Eight additional species reveal the former presence of major clades of the family that are currently absent from the Neotropics and elucidate previously unknown dispersal events. Our results indicate that regional extinction and dispersal have substantially impacted the evolutionary history of Vitaceae in the Neotropics. They also suggest that while the Neotropics have been dynamic centres of diversification through the Cenozoic, extant Neotropical botanical diversity has also been shaped by extensive extinction over the past 66 million years.

Herrera, F., Carvalho, M.R., Stull, G.W. et al.
Cenozoic seeds of Vitaceae reveal a deep history of extinction and dispersal in the Neotropics. Nat. Plants (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01717-9

© 2024 Springer Nature Ltd.
Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

No evidence there then of the TOE being abandoned. Instead, the authors discuss to what extent the extermination of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was the environmental change that drove the evolutionary divergence of the Vitaceae to give the modern grape and its relatives. The research also shows that South America was probably where the order originated before spreading to all continents other than Antarctica.

Just something else for the creation cult leaders to discourage their dupes from learning about.

---

Advertisement

What Makes You So Special? From The Big Bang To You

How did you come to be here, now? This books takes you from the Big Bang to the evolution of modern humans and the history of human cultures, showing that science is an adventure of discovery and a source of limitless wonder, giving us richer and more rewarding appreciation of the phenomenal privilege of merely being alive and able to begin to understand it all.

Available in Hardcover, Paperback or ebook for Kindle

Advertisement

Ten Reasons To Lose Faith: And Why You Are Better Off Without It

This book explains why faith is a fallacy and serves no useful purpose other than providing an excuse for pretending to know things that are unknown. It also explains how losing faith liberates former sufferers from fear, delusion and the control of others, freeing them to see the world in a different light, to recognise the injustices that religions cause and to accept people for who they are, not which group they happened to be born in. A society based on atheist, Humanist principles would be a less divided, more inclusive, more peaceful society and one more appreciative of the one opportunity that life gives us to enjoy and wonder at the world we live in.

Available in Hardcover, Paperback or ebook for Kindle

Advertisement

Thank you for sharing!

Tweet Link