New Study Supports 44-Year-Old Hypothesis About Megafauna and Anachronistic Fruits

Scientists recently found the residue of Chilean palm fruit (Jubaea chilensis) on gomphothere (Notiomastodon platensis) teeth. This species was closely related to mastodons, and I referred to it as a mastodon in last week’s blog entry. This evidence supports a hypothesis first proposed 44 years ago by Dan Jansen and Paul Martin. They hypothesized many species of tropical plants that produce large fruits and seeds are anachronisms and have limited distributions today because the megafauna that spread their seeds in their dung became extinct about 11,000 years ago. The scientists who published this study looked at 96 gomphothere teeth. Over half of the specimens came from Lake Tagua Tagua, a glacial lake located in Chile. The cold waters of Lake Tagua Tagua preserve evidence dating to the Pleistocene. In addition to remains of gomphotheres, scientists have recovered the bones of horses, llamas, deer, ground sloths, waterfowl, frogs, and fish; all dating to the Pleistocene. They’ve…