Corn Cob That's 5,310 Years Old Helps Scientists Trace It's Development Through The Years

How you ever wondered about corn? Well, a group of scientists did and a cob of over 5,000 years has managed to give them examples and insight into the old look of the vegetable, together with the story of its domestication.

Science Magazine gives its readers some insight on the way corn maize used to look back in the
mid-days of its domestication. The first domesticated corn was not any bigger than a hand’s little finger and held 12 kernels on itself. The samples that were found and were dated over 5,000 years ago used to hold 50 kernels on themselves. As an example, nowadays corn can hold over 1,000 kernels on its maize. The first antiques of maize domestication were found by archaeologist Richard MacNeish back in the 1960’s but the technology back then was not developed enough to extract genetic information.

The old corn cobs, from over 9,000 years ago used to be small and its few kernels were tough like stone. The discovered domesticated species from over 5,000 years ago, shows much more similarity to nowadays crops than its ancient ancestor, reports Daily Mail UK. The reason for this is the purpose of domestication in making a better product. As an example the 5,000 sample had already developed genes for making its kernels soft like the ones people know nowadays. The reason for the success of this research was the fact that the samples acquired by Richard MacNeish were extremely well preserved, where over 70 percent of the DNA extracted from the ancient cobs he discovered.

According to BBC, the research has managed to share some information on how people used to use maize in the old days. If nowadays it is a main food source and fuel product, but back in the old days, it was not like that. Then corn was raised as a food product for certain times of the year. The agriculture was more diverse than just concentrating on one culture.