condors and avocados are the same
@baakunawa replied to your post: condors and avocados are the same
Rich in fat? Haha how?����
theyâre both evolutionary anachronisms! they evolved for an ecosystem that doesnât exist anymore, specifically one filled with now-extinct megafauna. big fruits are usually an adaptation that means that the fruit will be eaten by herbivores and the seeds dispersed in their poop, but thereâs nothing left in the americas now big enough to do that with avocados â they probably evolved to be eaten by ground sloths and gomphotheres and other giant herbivores. after the decline of their original disperser species, avocados may actually have survived because of human consumption!
meanwhile condors used to be endemic all over the americas, but now the only two remaining species live in mountainous coastal areas (plus a population introduced to the grand canyon). theyâre some of the biggest flying birds in existence because they evolved to scavenge off of carcasses of giant megafauna, something we have direct evidence for in terms of bones found in preserved ancient condor nests! when most of the megafauna died out, the populations that survived did because they were able to rely on marine mammals as a food source, hence why theyâre largely coastal
some other evolutionary anachronisms: pronghorns! the pronghorn antelope can run significantly faster than any modern predator in its environment. whatâs the point of wasting energy on extreme speed once youâve already outpaced everyone else so significantly? in all probability, the pronghorn was once prey to significantly faster predators; namely Miracinonyx, the so-called american cheetah. the fossil record for big cats is remarkably incomplete, so how closely Miracinonyx may have been related to modern cheetahs is unclear, but their habitats and morphology were similar, so itâs very plausible that they also relied on speed to hunt.
in another case, camels imported to the US south were found to eat creosote bushes, which almost no native animal does. however, the ancestors of all modern camelids (like camels, llamas, and their relatives) originated in the americas, and asian camels are relatively close to their ancestors which crossed over Beringia from north america. in all probability, those camels had been reunited with a food source their ancestors had adapted to consume thousands of years ago!
(⌠this post has weirdly made me realize that all the examples I know of evolutionary anachronism are from the americas. huh. wonder why)
