Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated?
During the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, the broad spectrum of wild plant species exploited by hunter-gatherers narrowed dramatically. The mechanisms responsible for this specialization and the associated domestication of plants are intensely debated. We investigated why some specie...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31201/ |
| _version_ | 1848794149704171520 |
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| author | Preece, Catherine Livarda, Alexandra Wallace, Michael Martin, Gemma Charles, Michael Christin, Pascal-Antoine Jones, Glynis Rees, Mark Osborne, Colin P. |
| author_facet | Preece, Catherine Livarda, Alexandra Wallace, Michael Martin, Gemma Charles, Michael Christin, Pascal-Antoine Jones, Glynis Rees, Mark Osborne, Colin P. |
| author_sort | Preece, Catherine |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | During the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, the broad spectrum of wild plant species exploited by hunter-gatherers narrowed dramatically. The mechanisms responsible for this specialization and the associated domestication of plants are intensely debated. We investigated why some species were domesticated rather than others, and which traits they shared.
We tested whether the progenitors of cereal and pulse crops, grown individually, produced a higher yield and less chaff than other wild grasses and legumes, thereby maximizing the return per seed planted and minimizing processing time. We compared harvest traits of species originating from the Fertile Crescent, including those for which there is archaeological evidence of deliberate collection.
Unexpectedly, wild crop progenitors in both families had neither higher grain yield nor, in grasses, less chaff, although they did have larger seeds. Moreover, small-seeded grasses actually returned a higher yield relative to the mass of seeds sown. However, cereal progenitors had threefold fewer seeds per plant, representing a major difference in how seeds are packaged on plants.
These data suggest that there was no intrinsic yield advantage to adopting large-seeded progenitor species as crops. Explaining why Neolithic agriculture was founded on these species, therefore, remains an important unresolved challenge. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:11:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-31201 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:11:36Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-312012020-05-04T17:04:51Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31201/ Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? Preece, Catherine Livarda, Alexandra Wallace, Michael Martin, Gemma Charles, Michael Christin, Pascal-Antoine Jones, Glynis Rees, Mark Osborne, Colin P. During the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, the broad spectrum of wild plant species exploited by hunter-gatherers narrowed dramatically. The mechanisms responsible for this specialization and the associated domestication of plants are intensely debated. We investigated why some species were domesticated rather than others, and which traits they shared. We tested whether the progenitors of cereal and pulse crops, grown individually, produced a higher yield and less chaff than other wild grasses and legumes, thereby maximizing the return per seed planted and minimizing processing time. We compared harvest traits of species originating from the Fertile Crescent, including those for which there is archaeological evidence of deliberate collection. Unexpectedly, wild crop progenitors in both families had neither higher grain yield nor, in grasses, less chaff, although they did have larger seeds. Moreover, small-seeded grasses actually returned a higher yield relative to the mass of seeds sown. However, cereal progenitors had threefold fewer seeds per plant, representing a major difference in how seeds are packaged on plants. These data suggest that there was no intrinsic yield advantage to adopting large-seeded progenitor species as crops. Explaining why Neolithic agriculture was founded on these species, therefore, remains an important unresolved challenge. Wiley 2015-03-11 Article PeerReviewed Preece, Catherine, Livarda, Alexandra, Wallace, Michael, Martin, Gemma, Charles, Michael, Christin, Pascal-Antoine, Jones, Glynis, Rees, Mark and Osborne, Colin P. (2015) Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? New Phytologist, 207 (3). pp. 905-913. ISSN 1469-8137 crop progenitors domestication Fertile Crescent harvest traits origins of agriculture seed size yield http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.13353/full doi:10.1111/nph.13353 doi:10.1111/nph.13353 |
| spellingShingle | crop progenitors domestication Fertile Crescent harvest traits origins of agriculture seed size yield Preece, Catherine Livarda, Alexandra Wallace, Michael Martin, Gemma Charles, Michael Christin, Pascal-Antoine Jones, Glynis Rees, Mark Osborne, Colin P. Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? |
| title | Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? |
| title_full | Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? |
| title_fullStr | Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? |
| title_short | Were Fertile Crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? |
| title_sort | were fertile crescent crop progenitors higher yielding than other wild species that were never domesticated? |
| topic | crop progenitors domestication Fertile Crescent harvest traits origins of agriculture seed size yield |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31201/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31201/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/31201/ |