On Jul. 30, 2022, scientists announced they had sequenced the genome of a 6,000-year-old Citrullus seeds that revealed the use of a bitter-fleshed species prior to watermelon domestication. The findings were published in Molecular Biology and Evolution.

This study revealed the Neolithic use in Libya of a form of Citrullus that was genetically close to todayﾒs seed use, bitter-fleshed, egusi-type watermelon (Citrullus mucosospermus), now restricted to Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria in West Africa.