Corn: 80,000 Year Old Genetic Engineering

"Because of its enveloping husk the [corn] plant is unable to seed itself and is, therefore, wholely dependent on man's care for its continuance." -- Howard T. Walden II, natural historian, 1966

"Mystery still shrouds the wild ancestry of corn, for throughout all the centuries of historical time corn has been unable to disperse its seeds and hence dependent upon the hand of man for its perpetuation." -- Howard T. Walden II, natural historian, 1966

"... corn is something more than an important food plant; it is also a mystery, a fascinating botanical mystery, as challenging to a scientist as is a mountain to an explorer." -- Paul C. Mangelsdorf, botanist, April 1978

Corn is a genetically engineered crop. It was domestically selected, perhaps by Homo sapiens, from the teosinte plant.

History of Corn

Corn as we know it today would not exist if it weren't for the humans that cultivated and developed it. It is a human invention, a plant that does not exist naturally in the wild. It can only survive if planted and protected by humans.

Scientists believe people living in central Mexico developed corn at least 7000 years ago. It was started from a wild grass called teosinte. Teosinte looked very different from our corn today.

The evidence shows that corn was genetically engineered, perhaps by man, over 80,000 years ago.

National Agricultural Library of the United States Department of Agriculture: Popcorn: Ingrained in America's Agricultural History.

The oldest known corn pollen is scarcely distinguishable from modern corn pollen, judging by an 80,000-year-old fossil found 200 feet below Mexico City.

Popcorn Universe: 10,000 years before movies and theaters, there was popcorn.

Archaeologists have found 80,000-year-old corn pollen below Mexico City.

Yet more confirmation of Pre-Clovis Atlantean Civilization and the Myth of the Bering Sea Land Bridge migration.

Barghoorn, et al., Fossil Maize From the Valley of Mexico, Botanical Museum Leaflett Harvard University, Pages 229-240, 1954

Mangelsdorf, P.C., Reconstructing the Ancestor of Corn, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 102, Number 5, Pages 454-463, October 1958

Galinat, W.C., Corn's Evolution and its Significance for Breeding, Economic Botony, Volume 15, Number 4, Pages 320-325, Oct 1961

Whitehead, D.R., and Langham, E.J., Measurement As a Means of Identifying Fossil Maize Pollen, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Volume 92, Number 1, Pages 7-20, Jan/Feb 1965

Galinat, W.C., The Origin of Maize, Annual Review of Genetics, Volume 5, Pages 447-448, Dec 1971

Bryant, V.M., Microscopic Evidence For the Domestication and Spread of Maize, PNAS, Volume 104, Number 50, Pages 19659-19660, Dec 2007