56-Million-Year-Old Fossil Found in Germany May Be Oldest Known Cannabis Plant
- A fossilized leaf found in Germany, dated between 56 and 48 million years ago, may be the oldest known cannabis-related plant, potentially pushing back the Cannabis genus timeline by about 30 million years.
- The leaf, resembling modern marijuana in shape and vein pattern, had been in a museum collection for around 150 years before being recently reexamined and identified as an extinct relative of modern Cannabis species.
- The discovery challenges the previous belief that cannabis originated in the Tibetan Plateau, suggesting a broader and older history for the plant that may not be confined to high-altitude Asian regions.
- Although researchers cannot confirm the presence of THC due to fossil limitations, the find provides strong evidence that marijuana's evolutionary history is much older than previously thought, raising new questions about its origins.
(Photo credit: Ludwig Luthardt/Museum fur Naturkunde).
A fossil discovered in Germany may be the oldest known cannabis-related plant ever identified, potentially pushing the timeline of the genus back by about 30 million years.
The fossilized leaf, dated to between 56 million and 48 million years ago, was found in the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany and is now being highlighted as a possible early relative of modern marijuana. That would make it far older than previous estimates suggesting the Cannabis genus emerged around 20 million to 28 million years ago.
According to researchers, the fossil had actually been sitting in a museum collection for around 150 years after first being described in 1883. Only recently was it reexamined in detail, leading to renewed interest because of how closely it resembles today’s cannabis leaves. Researchers say the shape of the leaf and its vein pattern are both strikingly similar to modern marijuana plants.
Even so, the fossil is not believed to be the same as modern Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica. Instead, it appears to represent an extinct relative from much earlier in the plant’s evolutionary history. Researchers note that today’s marijuana varieties have been heavily shaped by human cultivation and selective breeding, likely over thousands of years.
The discovery is notable not just because of its age, but because of where it was found. For years, cannabis was widely believed to have originated in the Tibetan Plateau region of Asia. This fossil suggests the genus may have a far older and broader history than previously thought, and that its origin may not be tied only to high-altitude regions in Asia.
Researchers say they can’t determine whether the ancient plant contained THC because the fossil does not preserve the tiny structures where cannabinoids are produced.
Still, the fossil is offering one of the strongest signs yet that the history of marijuana may stretch back much further than once believed, while also opening the door to new questions about where the plant first emerged.