Tomatillo fossil is oldest nightshade plant
Pocketed berry is millions of years older than earlier estimates
By Meghan Rosen
Two tiny tomatillo fossils have kicked the origin of nightshade plants back to the age of dinosaurs.
The fossils, pressed into 52-million-year-old rock, suggest that the nightshade family originated millions of years earlier than scientists had suspected, researchers report in the Jan. 6 Science.
Nightshades include roughly 2,500 species of plants, from tomatoes to eggplants to tobacco. Previous estimates had dated the family to some 30 to 51 million years ago. And scientists had suggested that tomatillos, specifically, arose even more recently, around 10 million years ago.