Ancient Chili Pepper Fossils Discovered in Colorado

Rare fossilized chili peppers, Lycianthoides calycina, have been discovered in the Green River Formation in northwestern Colorado and southwestern Wyoming, pushing back the emergence of the chili pepper to at least 50 million years ago in North America. The discovery also sheds new light on the evolutionary timeline of tomato plants, which belong to the same nightshade family Solanaceae. The fossilized peppers may have been dispersed by fruit-eating birds, but the exact method of their arrival in North America remains unclear.