Researchers at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin have found a plant fossil in the museum’s collections that may be the oldest known discovery from the genus Cannabis. The fossil, an imprint of a leaf in hardened clay, comes from the area near Eisleben in Saxony-Anhalt and was described as early as 1883 under the name Cannabis oligocaenica.
The find could be up to 56 million years old
According to the museum, newer dating places the fossil in the early Eocene, roughly 56–48 million years ago. This makes the find significantly older than previous traces often linked to the evolutionary history of cannabis, including pollen finds from the Miocene around 20 million years ago.
If the classification is confirmed, the discovery could change the understanding of where and when the genus Cannabis first emerged. Today’s Cannabis sativa has often been linked to northwestern China and nearby regions, but such an old find in Central Europe raises new questions about the plant’s early distribution.
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Similar to modern cannabis leaves
The fossil leaf has serrated, lance-shaped leaflets that researchers say resemble modern cannabis plants. At the same time, it is emphasized that further studies are needed before the find can be definitively placed within the genus Cannabis.
One important limitation is that some details are missing from the fossil material, such as the fine hairs on the leaf surface that, in modern plants, can contain compounds such as THC. The discovery is therefore still described with caution: it may be the world’s oldest known cannabis plant, but this has not yet been conclusively established.
A collection find with major significance
The fossil was not discovered during a new excavation, but while researchers were working on cataloguing the museum’s collections. This shows how older museum material can still provide new knowledge when examined with more modern methods.
The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin describes the find as a highlight of the collection and is continuing its research to determine whether Cannabis oligocaenica truly belongs to the earliest known history of cannabis.
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