What Did Ancient Corn Look Like Before Domestication?

Discover the origins of corn and its transformation from teosinte to the modern crop we see today.

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Corn originally looked very different from the large, golden ears we know today. It was a wild grass called teosinte that had small, hard kernels not bunched together like modern corn. Over thousands of years, through selective breeding by indigenous people, it evolved into the larger, more versatile crop we now recognize as corn.

FAQs & Answers

  1. What is teosinte? Teosinte is a wild grass and the ancestor of modern corn, featuring small, hard kernels.
  2. How did selective breeding change corn? Selective breeding allowed ancient people to cultivate desirable traits, leading to larger and more versatile corn over thousands of years.
  3. What were the characteristics of ancient corn? Ancient corn was much smaller, with hard kernels that were not clustered like modern varieties.
  4. When did corn domestication begin? Corn was domesticated over 9,000 years ago by indigenous people in what is now Mexico.

Watch More

To deepen your understanding of agricultural history, check out our video on the evolution of crops through selective breeding and learn how plants have transformed over time.

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