ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — Archeologists may have found out when cave-dwelling prehistoric Mesoamericans began eating maize as a staple, according to a new study in Science Advances.<br /><br />Researchers examined the carbon isotope content of 52 skeletons from various rock shelters in Belize. The bones belonged to a representative sample of men, women and children, and evidence showed they were consuming more and more maize.<br /><br />Writing in a news release, researchers say pre-maize hunter-gatherers from around 9,000 years ago ate wild animals and plants. Then, about 4,700 years ago, the population began to consume maize, which made up 30 percent of their diet.<br /><br />In the following millenia, Mesoamericans adopted sedentary farming and maize consumption increased to 70 percent of the food they ate.<br /><br />The authors speculated that human selection and spontaneous genetic changes to the plants then led to maize crops to grow bigger cobs, bigger seeds and more seed rows.
