A FOSSIL FRUIT FROM CALIFORNIA SHOWS ANCESTORS OF COFFEE AND POTATOES SURVIVED CATACLYSM THAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS
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 modern-day staple crops. According to Brian Atkinson, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, the fossil fruit sheds new light on a “critical interval” in the history of life on Earth.