Bigger India

Scientific Shock: Sweet Potato Originated in India, Not The Americas

Fossil plant 57 million years old found in Meghalaya seems ancestral to the sweet potato, and indicates the split from tobacco and tomatoes occurred a lot earlier than thought.

The sweet potato isn’t a potato, and now we know it isn’t from the Americas either, as had been thought, after a 57-million-year-old fossil looking very much like an ancestor of the tuber was found in India.

The fossil leaves found in Meghalaya, northeast India, have the hallmarks of morning glory – a vast family of flowering plants that includes sweet potatoes.

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