‘Rare and exquisite’ 52-million-year-old fossil fruits discovered with papery skins still intact

Fossilised groundcherries − a type of lantern fruit − have been discovered preserved in amazing detail next to the remains of a volcanic lake in Patagonia, Argentina.

The age of the fossils suggests that lantern fruits evolved much earlier than previously thought, according to a paper published in the journal Science.

The fossils belong to the Solanaceae family, which includes potatoes, peppers, tobacco and tomatoes. The family was thought to be about 30 million years old, based on fossil remains of tiny seeds.

Now the fossil remains of two whole intact fruits show that the family is a great deal older than that. The two fossils are from a late-evolving branch of the family, and even that is 52 million years old. This dates them to the period when South America was right next to Antarctica in the supercontinent Gondwana.