简体中文
Chinese researchers have found evidence of the shift from wild rice to rice cultivation, which would help in the research into the origins of rice.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) collected samples of phytoliths, microscopic minerals that give a wealth of information about a plant long after its death, from an archaeological profile at the Hehuashan site, located in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River in east China's Zhejiang Province.
They analyzed the fan-shaped structures that were contained in rice leaves.
A change in the amount and forms of the fan-shaped phytoliths found at the Early Neolithic site indicated a change from wild rice to cultivated rice at the time of human occupation, which provides evidence of possible manipulation of wild rice during the Shangshan Culture period about 10,000 years ago.
Rice cultivation has a long evolutionary process.
Rice cultivation has a long evolutionary process.
"Ancient humans recognized wild rice could satisfy their hunger," said Wu Yan, associate professor from CAS Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
"Then they learnt to collect and preserve wild rice and began rice cultivation."
The phytoliths were resistant to corrosion and well preserved.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
