Watermelons weren’t always the sweet, juicy fruit we eat today
Scientists have sequenced the oldest plant genome on record, and it comes from watermelon seeds chomped on by Stone Age sheep herders in the Sahara. The 6,000-year-old watermelon seeds resurfaced in the 1990s during an archaeological dig of the cave site known as Uan Muhuggiag, located along a swath of the Sahara that’s now Libya. Due to the cave’s dry, salty air, the seeds, which may have fallen to the ground during a meal, were well preserved, enabling scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to sequence their DNA. Examination of the genome also showed that the seeds were those of a wild watermelon, one of Africa’s oldest crops, and probably contained a sickeningly bitter pulp. The discovery is important because it offers information about the domestication of the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) that we enjoy today. It also offers insight into ancient people’s diets and lifestyles.