Domestic turkey2

University of Florida researchers compared ancient and modern turkey ulnae, left, and tarsometatarsi, right, to determine that bones recovered from a Mayan site in Guatemala were from a non-local turkey species from central and northern Mexico. In a new study appearing online in PLoS ONE Aug. 8, Florida Museum of Natural History researchers show the Maya reared the species Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo during the Late Preclassic period from 300 B.C. to A.D. 100, more than 1,000 years earlier than previously believed.

(University of Florida photo by Erin Thornton)
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