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by adolph
486 days ago
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The giant sloth was the first thing that came to my mind. Nearly every time I'm at the grocery I think about the giant ground sloth theory of avocado evolution: A number of authors, including Connie Barlow in her 2001 book The Ghosts of
Evolution, have speculated that the avocado is an "evolutionary anachronism"
with megafaunal dispersal syndrome (a concept originally proposed in the
1980s by Paul S. Martin and Daniel H. Janzen), arguing that the avocado
likely coevolved dispersal of its large seed by now-extinct megafauna. Barlow
proposed that the dispersers included the gomphothere (elephant relative)
Cuvieronius, as well as ground sloths, toxodontids, and glyptodonts. The
concept of evolutionary anachronisms/megafaunal dispersal syndrome has been
criticised by some authors, who note that many large fruit are readily
dispersed by non-megafaunal animals, with it being noted that living agoutis
disperse avocado seeds, with spectacled bears have also having been observed
eating domestic avocados.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado |
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Early wild avocado seeds were smaller at around 2cm/.8in in diameter.