Page 69 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition
P. 69
Ancestors of Coffee and Potatoes 69
Ancestors of Coffee and
Potatoes Survived
Cataclysm That Killed the
Dinosaur Discovery
extends the record of
nearly 40,000 species of
flowering plants to the
Cretaceous period
Coffee beans being roasted
The discovery of an 80-million-year-old
fossil plant pushes back the known
origins of lamiids to the Cretaceous,
extending the record of nearly 40,000
species of flowering plants including Cretaceous ecosystems on the west coast But before, there are no clear known
modern-day staple crops like coffee, of North America may have resembled fossils that belong to that family. And I
tomatoes, potatoes, and mint.Brian structurally complex rain forests." thought, ‘Oh my God, this is it!’ You
Atkinson, assistant professor of ecology know, this family of plants have just these
& evolutionary biology at the University The well-preserved fossil was unearthed really striking fruits.”
of Kansas (KU) and curator of in the 1990s by construction crews
paleobotany at the KU Biodiversity building housing near Granite Bay in (Continued on Page 70)
Institute, recently published a study of Sacramento, California. Located in
the fossil plant, named Palaeophytocrene deposits of the Chico Formation tied to Take the
chicoensis, in the peer-reviewed journal the Campanian (fifth of six ages of the
Nature Plants. Late Cretaceous epoch), the fossil was 2023 COFFEE SURVEY
collected by Richard Hilton and Patrick by
"This fossil tells us a really diverse group Antuzzi of Sierra College and housed at CLICKING ON THIS LINK!
of flowering plants evolved prior to our their natural history museum.
original understanding,” Atkinson said.
“The fossil belongs to a group of lianas, “I spent seven years looking for these
which are woody vines that add structural things [Cretaceous lamiids], and I
complexity to rain forests. It shows us couldn't find them,” Atkinson said. “I’d When a suspected Chinese
this group of flowering plants appeared been collecting and studying Cretaceous
super early in the fossil record. There’d plants on the West Coast to better spy balloon flew over
been some hypotheses that they were understand the evolution of flowering Canada, why didn't we
around in the Cretaceous period—but no plants. Somebody said, ‘Oh, you should shoot it down?
good clear evidence. This is a great check out the Sierra College Museum of
indicator that structurally complex, Natural History,’ as it wasn’t on my radar
modern-type rain forests may have been to contact them. They gladly had me over Continued from Page 67
around as early as 80 million years ago." to look at their fossil plant collection, and
I was just kind of blown away by the
According to the KU researcher, the diversity of plants that these guys were As for modernizing NORAD, historian
fossil fruit sheds new light on a “critical able to dig up in this housing Bercuson couldn't agree more. "Of course
interval” in the history of life on Earth. development.” we have to upgrade NORAD," he said,
"we've known it for a long time." But he
“It’s a time when forests are transitioning It wasn’t until Atkinson saw the fossil says governments have been reluctant to
from being dominated by gymnosperms plant recovered decades earlier from the do so.
such as conifers to being dominated by construction site that the specimen’s
flowering plants,” Atkinson said. “We potential significance was understood. "So now we're going to have to because
know these ecological transitions we know that the Chinese have been
occurred during the Late Cretaceous— “As I was opening this drawer, I noticed doing this, have clearly gotten away with
but we still need critical pieces of this fruit with really striking patterns on it," he said.
evidence, like how certain ecosystems its surface,” the KU researcher said. “I
formed, such as rain forests, which today immediately recognized it as belonging "So, okay, do we want them patrolling
comprise over half of plant species that to this lamiid family called Icacinaceae, our skies, taking pictures, listening to our
are alive today. This fossil shows this which is well-known in younger, post- signals or tapping into our conversations?
diverse group of plants, the lamiids, were Cretaceous deposits after the mass- Well, I would think we wouldn't want
older than previously thought, and extinction event. It's all over the place. them to know that." []
