BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Campripce, Massacnusetts, Marcu 6, 1956 
VoL. 
ESTIMATES OF TEOSINTE INTROGRESSION 
IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MAIZE 
BY 
W.C.Gatinat,’ P.C. MANGELSDORF” AND L. PIERSON? 
In their monograph, ‘“The Origin of Indian Corn and 
Its Relatives,’’ Mangelsdorf and Reeves (1939) postu- 
lated that teosinte (Euchlaena) is the descendant of a 
natural hybrid between maize (Zea) and its wild relative 
Tripsacum, and that subsequent introgression from teo- 
sinte (i.e., ultimately from Tripsacum) has contributed 
significantly to the development of modern maize. The 
first of these postulates has not yet been proven, but evi- 
dence in support of the second has recently been found, 
not only in living races of maize, but also in archaeologi- 
cal remains of this economic plant. Studies of Wellhausen 
et al. (1952) indicate that the modern races of maize in 
Mexico have varying degrees of teosinte introgression, 
and that the most productive of these races were derived 
by combining different lines of introgression. In the 
prehistoric cobs from Bat Cave, which Mangelsdorf and 
Smith studied (1949), the earliest specimens appear to 
be ‘‘pure’” maize, whereas later ones show evidence of 
contamination by teosinte. Further evidence of prehis- 
toric introgression by teosinte comes from the upper 
1 Bussey Institution of Harvard University. 
? Botanical Museum of Harvard University. 
® National Park Service. 
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