Dinosaurs may have shaped the evolution of fruit-bearing plants
Researchers from the University of Kansas have discovered evidence suggesting that large, fleshy fruits evolved millions of years earlier than previously thought. This finding indicates that dinosaurs may have consumed these fruits long before the mass extinction event 66 million years ago.
Why it matters
This discovery challenges long-held paleobotanical assumptions about the timeline of plant evolution and the ecological interactions between dinosaurs and early flowering plants.
The timeline for fruit evolution has shifted dramatically. Researchers now suggest large, fleshy fruits evolved tens of millions of years earlier than expected.
This means that dinosaurs may have eaten them long before the mass extinction. The study was led by the University of Kansas .
The research pushes back on the idea that flowering plants didn’t develop large fruits and seeds until after the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs roughly 66 million years ago.
Paleobotanists had generally assumed that flowering plants only picked up their modern reproductive tricks after the asteroid impact ended the Cretaceous.
“For much of their early history, they were relatively small, weedy plants that did not dominate forest canopies,” said James Saulsbury , a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kansas.
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