Human behavioral ecology, phenotypic (developmental) plasticity, and agricultural origins: insights from the emerging evolutionary synthesis.

The fields of human behavioral ecology (HBE) and evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) both stand to make significant contributions to our understanding of agricultural origins. These two approaches share a concern with phenotypic-plasticity and its evolutionary significance. HBE considers the adaptive plasticity of the human phenotype in response to resource distribution in time and space and has helped to advance understanding of the economic costs and benefits of food production. However, evo-devo and the associated subject of phenotypic (developmental) plasticity have so far been largely neglected as sources of insight into the domestication of plants, despite growing evidence for their evolutionary importance in nature and their roles in the origins of novel traits. We argue that it is important to consider environmentally induced phenotypic variation resulting directly from both natural- and human-induced ecological change as a source of the distinctive morphologies of domesticated plants.