Early farmers' larger grains may reflect rainfall, not genetic selection

Phys.org reports on a new archaeobotanical study from the University of Oxford and Kiel University that challenges how scientists have understood the very beginnings of farming. Researchers found that when grain size increased more than eleven thousand years ago at the dawn of agriculture, it wasn't the result of genetic selection by early farmers—instead, the plants themselves were responding to better growing conditions. The finding suggests that the genetic shifts we see in ancient domesticated crops may have emerged later, after humans had already learned to cultivate.

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