Episode 35 - Beyond Avocados: Megafauna Fruit
It's another sponsored episode! This week, we bring you the fascinating (and sometimes delicious) topic of evolutionary anachronisms. What happens when two species co-evolve to support one another, but one goes extinct? What's up with that obscure, hipster fruit, the paw-paw, and why is Amber mad at NPR? What can blue jays tell us about human impulsivity? All this and more!
To learn more, check out:
Forgotten fruits: Or, megafaunal dispersal syndrome and the case of the missing herbivores (Scientopia’s Guest Blog)
Zerega, N.J.C., D. Ragone, and T.J. Motley. 2006. Genetic diversity and origins of domesticated breadfruit. In Darwin’s Harvest: New Approaches to the Origins, Evolution, and Conservation of Crops, ed. T.J. Motley, N.J.C. Zerega, and H.B. Cross. Columbia University Press, New York.
Barlow, Connie. 2000. The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and other Ecological Anachronisms. Basic Books, New York, NY.
This Once-Obscure Fruit Is On Its Way To Becoming PawPaw-Pawpular (NPR)
Human diets drive range expansion of megafauna-dispersed fruit species (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
Impulsive behavior may be relict of hunter-gatherer past (EurekAlert!)
Mischel, Walter; Ebbesen, Ebbe B.; Raskoff Zeiss, Antonette (1972). "Cognitive and attentional mechanisms in delay of gratification". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 21 (2): 204–218. doi:10.1037/h0032198. ISSN 0022-3514. PMID 5010404.
Photo credit: Osage orange, The Dirt Instagram