The master vault holds more than 860,000 seed samples collected from around the world in an effort to ensure against their loss in the wild. (scientificamerican.com)
It is illegal to remove archaeological samples from Egypt, so the researchers dated items from museum collections in Europe and North America, as well as freshly excavated seed samples from Tell es - Sakan on the Gaza Strip, which was an outpost of ancient Egypt. (newscientist.com)
For decades, these seed collections have been guided by simple models that offer a one - size - fits - all approach for how many seeds to gather, such as recommending saving 50 seed samples regardless of species» pollination mode, growth habitat and population size. (sciencedaily.com)