Hi Gang, I've put some links in this posting that will take you to Web articles about prehistoric humans and plant use. Two that caught my attention concern the diets of Holocene peoples in Texas, and while not directly about bulbs, do mention the consumption of bulbs by ancient peoples. After a little more research I realized that one of may favorite native plants (Camassia) was employed as a food source by Native Americans in historic times. (Warnng-moving off topic now) The information about Holocene peoples got me thinking about events in the news this week, about the initial efforts to determine the DNA sequence of Neanderthal humans. I've put two news articles and two manuscripts online, the information was published this week in Science and Nature (leading science journals around the world). The papers describe initial results from efforts to sequence the genome of Neanderthal humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). As expected, the results show that Neanderthals were darn similar to modern day humans at the DNA level. The molecular clock method estimates how many changes accumulate in DNA sequences over time (in any given species). By counting the small differences between modern humans and Neanderthal humans, the scientists estimate that our last common ancestor lived about 500,000 years ago--a figure that is in general agreement with archeological data. To make it legal (for a bulb forum) I also speculate that Neanderthal humans, like prehistoric peoples everywhere, ate various bulbous and tuberous plants. LINK: Article Describing Camp Bowie Midden and Bulbs Found Therein http://texasbeyondhistory.net/bowie/… LINK: Geophytes in the Diets of Holocene Peoples of Texas http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/thoms/… LINK: Camassia quamash, a Food Plant http://www.paghat.com/camas.html LINK: See Titles with Neanderthal in File Name (dated Nov. 17, 2006) http://www.opuntiads.com/pdf/ Cordially, Joe Conroe TX