Can Palynology be used for Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Maize Agriculture?

Abstract

The lack of archaeological or macrobotanical evidence that directly links wild teosinte grass with early domesticated maize requires the exploration of alternative methodologies to document this evolutionary transition. The morphological characteristics and measurements for maize, teosinte and Tripsacum pollen are presented to determine if they display sufficient differentiation to be distinguished in fossil pollen records. Analysis of the data reveals a lack of distinguishing morphological characteristics between the pollen grains of these taxa and prevents palynology from be an effective method in documenting the evolutionary history of maize agriculture. Current methods of pollen analysis cannot be employed to document the evolution of teosinte to maize in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico and pollen is not likely to provide an earlier record of this transition than what is found in the macrobotanical or archaeological evidence.