Teosinte Inflorescence Phytolith Assemblages Mirror Zea Taxonomy

Abstract

Molecular DNA analyses of the New World grass (Poaceae) genus Zea, comprising five species, has resolved taxonomic issues including the most likely teosinte progenitor (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis) of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays). However, archaeologically, little is known about the use of teosinte by humans both prior to and after the domestication of maize. One potential line of evidence to explore these relationships is opaline phytoliths produced in teosinte fruit cases. Here we use multidimensional scaling and multiple discriminant analyses to determine if rondel phytolith assemblages from teosinte fruitcases reflect teosinte taxonomy. Our results indicate that rondel phytolith assemblages from the various taxa, including subspecies, can be statistically discriminated. This indicates that it will be possible to investigate the archaeological histories of teosinte use pending the recovery of appropriate samples.

A conceptual framework for a computer-assisted, morphometric-based phytolith analysis and classification system

“…In several cases, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been successfully used to accomplish this task in phytolith research (Ball et al 1999;Iriarte 2003;Russ and Rovner 1989;Zhang et al 2011;Zhao et al 1998). However, LDA is only one of a suite of multivariate statistical classification approaches that have been applied to phytoliths, including cluster analysis, principal components analysis, multidimensional scaling, and other methods (Chavez and Thompson 2006;Hart and Matson 2009;Hart et al 2011).…”