WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Did Fruit Evolve in Different Colors?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren voel Bomb here with another classic podcast episode. This

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<v Speaker 1>one looks into the beautiful diversity of fruits and flowers

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<v Speaker 1>and how plants evolved them in order to attract not us,

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<v Speaker 1>but a variety of local non human animals. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogel Bomb here. Imagine having to get a specific

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<v Speaker 1>person's attention in a crowded room without being able to

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<v Speaker 1>move a muscle or make any noise at all. It

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<v Speaker 1>sounds impossible, doesn't it. Well, this is the predicament plants

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<v Speaker 1>have found themselves in since time immemorial. How does one

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<v Speaker 1>get the attention of a fast moving animal when one

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<v Speaker 1>is silent, motionless, and also a shrub. Plants have solved

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<v Speaker 1>the problem, though, because necessity is the mother of invention,

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<v Speaker 1>and also because they've had around one hundred million years

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<v Speaker 1>to work on it. Many angiosperms of flowering plants, that is,

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<v Speaker 1>require the help of animals to spread their seeds around, since,

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<v Speaker 1>as we've discuss, they're incapable of doing so themselves. It's

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<v Speaker 1>one thing for mango tree to drop its fruit and

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<v Speaker 1>grow another little tree right underneath the parent, but It's

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<v Speaker 1>quite another for a monkey to take a piece of

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<v Speaker 1>fruit half a mile away and drop the seed in

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<v Speaker 1>a previously mango free zone. This is where the rubber

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<v Speaker 1>meets the road when it comes to angiosperm dissemination, and

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<v Speaker 1>the evolution and ultimate thriving and survival of these plants

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<v Speaker 1>has depended on individual species concocting new ways to manipulate

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<v Speaker 1>the animals they're most likely to come in contact with.

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<v Speaker 1>Two recent studies out of Germany examined the mechanisms by

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<v Speaker 1>which plants learned to flag down the right animals. It

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<v Speaker 1>turns out that those sound and movement are good strategies

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<v Speaker 1>for getting someone's attention. Animal heads are also turned by

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<v Speaker 1>smell and color, and according to this research, plants have

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<v Speaker 1>worked those angles pretty hard. The first study, published in

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<v Speaker 1>the journal Biology Letters, investigates how the color of certain

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<v Speaker 1>fruits can attract specific seed dispersers. The research team compared

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<v Speaker 1>experiments with fruit eating primates and wildlife preserves in both

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<v Speaker 1>the use Uganda and on the island of Madagascar. They

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<v Speaker 1>found that fruit bearing plants had evolved to cater to

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<v Speaker 1>the specific visual capabilities of the main seed dispersing animals

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<v Speaker 1>in each place. Though the landscapes in the two parks

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<v Speaker 1>are very similar. Ugandan seed dispersers, monkeys, apes, and birds

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<v Speaker 1>have tricolor vision like humans, whereas the lemurs in Madagascar

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<v Speaker 1>are red green color blind. The ripe berries on fruiting

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<v Speaker 1>plants reflected this. In Uganda, ripe red fruit on dark

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<v Speaker 1>green foliage showed up better to the animals native to

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<v Speaker 1>that area, whereas in Madagascar, the ready to eat fruits

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<v Speaker 1>were mostly yellow, a color more visible to lemurs. Similarly,

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<v Speaker 1>according to the other study published in the journal Science Advances,

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<v Speaker 1>the fruit in Madagascar is also more fragrant. Those plants

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<v Speaker 1>didn't want to leave their seed dispersal entirely up to

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<v Speaker 1>the visual acuity of a bunch of lemurs. Ripe figs

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<v Speaker 1>on the island are very smelly, which makes sense given

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<v Speaker 1>that colorblind lemurs would have been able to find the

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<v Speaker 1>smelliest fruits in the forest more easily than they could

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<v Speaker 1>find the most brightly colored. The figs that produced the

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<v Speaker 1>most odoriferous cocktail of chemical compounds as they ripened were eaten,

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<v Speaker 1>and thus their seeds dispersed more often on Madagascar, suggesting

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<v Speaker 1>that plants know exactly what they're doing. Evolutionarily speaking. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode is based on the article Plants evolve scents and

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<v Speaker 1>colors to attract animals. Four Seed Dispersal on how stuffworks

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com written by Jesslinshields. Brain Stuff is production of

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