Eocene lantern fruits from Gondwanan Patagonia and the early origins of Solanaceae

Abstract

Shedding light on fossil lantern fruit The Solanaceae (or nightshades) are one of the best-studied plant families, yet their evolutionary origins have thus far been relatively obscure. Corroborative fossil evidence of molecular phylogenetic divergence dates has been lacking. Wilf et al. present 52-million-year-old fossils of lantern fruits from Argentina, which they ascribe to the modern genus Physalis. These fossil finds suggest a much earlier origin of the lantern fruit lineage and indicate that the Solanaceae may have diversified before the final breakup of the Gondwanan supercontinent. Science , this issue p. 71