The Journey of Bottle Gourds: Their Trip from Africa to the New World

Chances are, if you lived in the New World over one thousand years ago, you didn't get very far without a trusty bottle gourd-a hard fruit that was primarily used as a canteen and/or backpack in prehistoric America.

Yet new genetic data actually suggests that some of these gourds may have floated over from Africa and started growing even before the domestication of humans, at approximately 10,000 years ago.

For their study, researchers collected domestic gourds from across the Americas and a number of ancient gourd samples found on archaeological digs, according to the Los Angeles Times. They then compared the DNA of the gourds with both current and ancient samples in Africa.

"The bottle gourd's always been an anomaly. It's been puzzling people for a long time," said Bruce Smith, an expert in American plant domestication at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, via USA Today. "The bottle gourd is no longer an anomaly."

Though previous findings had suggested that the gourds were brought over by Asian travelers, researchers now believe that those in possession of the gourds may have crossed a land bridge to Alaska which no longer exists as it would be too cold for the gourds to survive today.

According to the Los Angeles Times, bottle gourd seeds can remain fertile for over a year while floating in the ocean, with a life of up to 248 to 331 days, approximately.

"We have much more to learn about this species," said lead study author Logan Kistler, a post-doctoral researcher at Pennsylvania State University, via USA Today.

What do you think?

More information regarding the findings of the study can be seen via the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS).