Final answer:
Yes, grains like corn and rice are the edible seeds of grasses, result of domestication and selective breeding processes.
Step-by-step explanation:
True, grains such as corn and rice are indeed the edible seeds of a grass. Corn, also known as maize, is a product of the domestication of a wild grass called teosinte. This process, which started around nine thousand years ago in what is now Mexico, involved selective breeding by indigenous people to produce an agricultural staple with more and larger seeds that are easier to harvest.
Rice, on the other hand, is primarily from the species Oryza sativa and began to be domesticated in Asia between 8,000 and 13,000 years ago. Today, rice is critical for feeding a significant portion of the world's population and thrives in warm, moist conditions. Both corn and rice are part of the grass family, Poaceae, and are examples of how humans have shaped the evolution of grasses to create bountiful and nutritious food sources.
It's also interesting to note that despite their current appearance, the genetic differences between teosinte and modern corn are quite small, involving developmental genes that have greatly altered the morphology of the plant. Furthermore, today corn and teosinte can still interbreed, as they are essentially the same species.