Paleoecology of Phytoliths: Evolutionary Links between Human-Environment Interaction and Plant Domestication
Mădălina A. Borcă, Alexandru D. Costin, Mihai C. Popa, Andreea D. Ona*, Ioana V. Berindean, Leon Muntean
Department of Plant Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
* Corresponding Author: Andreea D. Ona. Email: 
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2026.088263
Received 01 July 2026; Accepted 31 August 2026; Published online 02 September 2026
Abstract
Long-term human–plant interactions have reshaped ecosystems and driven crop domestication, yet their reconstruction is often limited by poor preservation of organic remains in archaeological and sedimentary contexts. This review synthesizes current evidence on phytolith paleoecology to clarify evolutionary links among silica biomineralization, vegetation dynamics, human niche construction, and domestication processes. Beyond taxonomy, phytolith formation is presented as a biologically regulated, repeatedly evolved adaptive strategy in vascular plants, potentially conferring mechanical support, stress tolerance, and herbivory defense, implying that assemblages may reflect functional ecological responses as well as plant presence. In domestication research, diagnostic morphotypes and morphometrics improve detection of early cultivation and clarify dispersal pathways, as illustrated by rice domestication trajectories in the Lower Yangtze, including bulliform-based wild–domesticated distinctions and cautiously interpreted phytolith radiocarbon evidence, early broomcorn millet in second-millennium BCE Mesopotamia linked to irrigated summer multi-cropping, early Holocene maize cultivation in Mesoamerica distinguishable from teosinte, and size-based domestication signals in Cucurbita rind phytoliths from Ecuador. Key limitations include morphotype overlap among related taxa and taphonomic biases, reinforcing the need for multi-proxy integration (e.g., pollen, starch, macroremains, charcoal, micromorphology, geochemistry, ancient DNA). Overall, phytolith analysis is positioned as a methodological bridge connecting paleoecology, evolutionary biology, and archaeobotany to reconstruct coevolutionary feedbacks underlying agricultural origins and long-term landscape transformation.
Keywords
Archaeobotany; coevolution; crop domestication; human–plant interactions; niche construction theory; paleoecology; phytoliths; plant evolution; silica biomineralization
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