Researchers report fossil leaves of an ancestor of the sweet potato and member of the globally distributed morning glory family, Convulvaceae, found in northeastern India and dated to the late Paleocene epoch, 58.7-55.8 million years ago, when India was part of East Gondwana, suggesting that this plant family originated in East Gondwana and had already diverged from its sister family, Solanaceae, by the late Paleocene.
Article #18-00626: "Paleocene Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) from India with implications for an East Gondwana origin of Convolvulaceae," by Gaurav Srivastava, Rakesh C. Mehotra, and David L. Dilcher.
MEDIA CONTACT: David L. Dilcher, Indiana University Bloomington, IN; tel: 734-239-5248; e-mail: < dilcher@indiana.edu >; Gaurav Srivastava, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, INDIA; tel: +91-9792704022; e-mail: < gaurav_jan10@yahoo.co.in >
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences