Unit 2: Agriculture & Plant Domestication Flashcards
What is the dump heap hypothesis of domestication?
That growth began from volunteer plants in a waste pile
What is a second hypothesis of domestication?
That people settled in regions where there were abundant resources and purposely developed agriculture
What shows that agriculture was not out of convenience or necessity to improve caloric density
evidence of hunter gatherers knowing how to grow plants but didn’t need to
What likely started agriculture?
Some unknown factors that caused a gradual development rather than a single point
when did agriculture likely begin?
Around 12,000 ya with materials up to 15,000 ya
What did Nikolay Vavilov believe?
That modern domesticated crops are traced back to 8 centres of origin. The crops came from where the wild crop existed first and then was domesticated. These areas have the highest diversity of those crops.
What traits were selectively bred for?
Larger fruits compared to seeds for edible portion, lack of seed drop so they can be harvested, and uniform ripening and better flavour
What is domestication syndrome?
The specific traits that are changed in a crop for domestication. Some traits we desire are exaggerated while some crops no longer resemble the wild species at all.
What key changes were made to corn?
branching plant to one single stem
production of fewer ears
large seeds and ears
loss of hard fruit case
How many genes were changed in corn?
4-5 genes, but the cascade led to dramatic differences
where does corn come from?
Soutwest Mexico around 9000 ya from the teosinte plant
Where is the agricultural cradle?
The eastern edge of the Mediterranean
Where was squash domesticated?
North America
Before the new world which plants did Italy have vs not have?
They had wheat, but they did not yet have tomatoes, peppers, or zucchini
