You say potato, I say tomato?

Turns out one helped create the other: Natural interbreeding between wild tomatoes and potato-like plants in South America gave rise to the modern day spud around 9 million years ago, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Cell.

Co-author Loren Rieseberg, a professor at the University of British Columbia, said the findings point to a "profound shift" in evolutionary biology, as scientists increasingly recognize the role of ancient hybridization events in shaping the Tree of Life.