Ancient Egyptian Cotton Unveils Secrets of Domesticated Crop Evolution
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402093938.htm
Scientists studying 1,600 year old Egyptian cotton may have discovered the first proof of crop evolution in a short period of time after domestication. The Egyptian cotton classified as G. herbaceum showed a significant difference during the relatively short time scale to plant genetics of a millennium and a half from today’s Egyptian cotton. Another type of cotton from South America, G.Barbadense, was compaired to Egyptian Cotton and even though it was from a different continent and 3,000 years older they were similar. This similarity points towards punctuated evolution, long periods of evolutionary stability interspersed by bursts of rapid change, having occurred in the cotton family.
This can effect people in agriculture and geneticist who study the evolution or domestication of plants.
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