#evolutionary anachronism

[hootgrowl13]

Not me crying over evolutionary anachronism in plants! What do you mean the honey locust tree makes fruit for an animal that went extinct thousands of years ago??? What do you MEAN the bee orchid is enticing pollination by mimicking a bee that doesn't exist?!? And that all of these plants are now becoming extinct themselves because of the anachronism?!?!

It fucks me up!

[alithographica]

I encourage you to look upon your next avocado with a touch of wonder. You follow in the footsteps of giants.

Thanks to herofan135 on dA for introducing me to this concept!

Transcript below the cut.

Who Spreads the Avocado?

One major distribution route for seeds is to be eaten and carried long distances by animals. However, no modern native animal eats an avocado’s seed—it’s simply too big, and is poisonous to many species. It’s believed that it used to attract recently extinct megafauna like giant ground sloths, who were large enough to swallow the fruit whole. The avocado is an example of evolutionary anachronism. Evolutionary anachronism is a concept that refers to modern species (usually plants) that coevolved alongside now-extinct species, leaving them with abnormal traits in a modern context (like having large, toxic seeds that no modern animal will eat). There are many proposed examples of this phenomenon: • Honey locust pods are too large and tough for modern native animals, yet the seed coat must be damaged in order for the seed to sprout • Papaya seeds are poisonous or distasteful • Small animals can eat the flesh but not the seeds of osage oranges, and the thorns on the tree are spaced too far apart to deter deer, pointing to defense against a larger animal • American figs produce far too many fruits for the density of small animals in the area, possibly implying that they used to be eaten in greater numbers by larger animals