The story of how ancient wolves came to claim a place near the campfire as humanity's best friend is a familiar tale (even if scientists are still working out some of the specifics). In order to be ...

Researchers have proposed that some wild plant species possess certain attributes which make them more suitable for human cultivation than others. Researchers at the University of Southampton have ...

Flowers emit scented chemicals to attract pollinators, but this perfume—and how pollinators interact with the plant—can go through profound changes as a crop becomes domesticated. In a study published ...

The ancient peoples of Latin America did us all a tremendous favor by saving avocados from extinction and gradually making them tastier over thousands of years of domestication. (Credit: Markus via ...

Archaeologist Logan Kistler explains how he studies the roots of plant domestication Abigail Eisenstadt Modern gourds like pumpkins typically taste sweet, while their wild relatives are incredibly ...

Archaeologist Xinyi Liu at Washington University in St. Louis teamed up with Martin Jones of the University of Cambridge to write a new paper for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...

Food security is shaping up as one of the biggest challenges we face globally. In some places, access to food has steadily deteriorated in recent years, due to wars, inflation and climate-driven ...

Grapes have long played a crucial role in human society, both modern and ancient. Especially when it comes to the production of wine, grapes have proved to be a valuable and popular crop. It was so ...

Borrowing a page from what we know about animal behavior, archaeologists say that we should reassess our understanding of the process of plant domestication. The story of how ancient wolves came to ...

Gentically identical tomato plants grown in three different environments. The control condition represents good soil and no crowding (representing when humans cultivated the plants and fed and watered ...