Frontiers in Plant Science, 2018

The apple (Malus domestica [Suckow] Borkh.) is one of the most economically and culturally significant fruits in the world today, and it is grown in all temperate zones. With over a thousand landraces recognized, the modern apple provides a unique case study for understanding plant evolution under human cultivation. Recent genomic and archaeobotanical studies have illuminated parts of the process of domestication in the Rosaceae family. Interestingly, these data seem to suggest that rosaceous arboreal crops did not follow the same pathway toward domestication as other domesticated, especially annual, plants. Unlike in cereal crops, tree domestication appears to have been rapid and driven by hybridization. Apple domestication also calls into question the concept of centers of domestication and human intentionality. Studies of arboreal domestication also illustrate the importance of fully understanding the seed dispersal processes in the wild progenitors when studying crop origins. Large fruits in Rosaceae evolved as a seed-dispersal adaptation recruiting megafaunal mammals of the late Miocene. Genetic studies illustrate that the increase in fruit size and changes in morphology during evolution in the wild resulted from hybridization events and were selected for by large seed dispersers. Humans over the past three millennia have fixed larger-fruiting hybrids through grafting and cloning. Ultimately, the process of evolution under human cultivation parallels the natural evolution of larger fruits in the clade as an adaptive strategy, which resulted in mutualism with large mammalian seed dispersers (disperser recruitment).

Background Some neotropical, fleshy-fruited plants have fruits structurally similar to paleotropical fruits dispersed by megafauna (mammals >103 kg), yet these dispersers were extinct in South America 10–15 Kyr BP. Anachronic dispersal systems are best explained by interactions with extinct animals and show impaired dispersal resulting in altered seed dispersal dynamics. Methodology/Principal Findings We introduce an operational definition of megafaunal fruits and perform a comparative analysis of 103 Neotropical fruit species fitting this dispersal mode. We define two megafaunal fruit types based on previous analyses of elephant fruits: fruits 4–10 cm in diameter with up to five large seeds, and fruits >10 cm diameter with numerous small seeds. Megafaunal fruits are well represented in unrelated families such as Sapotaceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae, Apocynaceae, Malvaceae, Caryocaraceae, and Arecaceae and combine an overbuilt design (large fruit mass and size) with either a single or few (<3 seeds) extremely large seeds or many small seeds (usually >100 seeds). Within-family and within-genus contrasts between megafaunal and non-megafaunal groups of species indicate a marked difference in fruit diameter and fruit mass but less so for individual seed mass, with a significant trend for megafaunal fruits to have larger seeds and seediness. Conclusions/Significance Megafaunal fruits allow plants to circumvent the trade-off between seed size and dispersal by relying on frugivores able to disperse enormous seed loads over long-distances. Present-day seed dispersal by scatter-hoarding rodents, introduced livestock, runoff, flooding, gravity, and human-mediated dispersal allowed survival of megafauna-dependent fruit species after extinction of the major seed dispersers. Megafauna extinction had several potential consequences, such as a scale shift reducing the seed dispersal distances, increasingly clumped spatial patterns, reduced geographic ranges and limited genetic variation and increased among-population structuring. These effects could be extended to other plant species dispersed by large vertebrates in present-day, defaunated communities.

Plants, 2020

Megafaunal seed dispersal syndrome refers to a group of traits attributed to the evolution of plants in the presence of large mammals. Present-day plants that bear these traits in areas where megafauna are absent are presumed to represent anachronic dispersal systems. Gomortega keule is an endangered tree species from a monotypic family (Gomortegaceae), endemic to Chile. Its fruit traits suggest adaptation to seed dispersal by large vertebrates; however, none are present today along its area of distribution. Here, we conducted a detailed revision on the fruit morphology of G. keule to examine whether its fruit traits fit a megafaunal dispersal syndrome. Additionally, we examined the fruit processing behavior of large domestic and captive wild animals fed with G. keule fruits, and its effect on germination. G. keule fruits had traits consistent with those of a Type 1 megafaunal fruit. Compared to intact, whole stones, seed germination probabilities decreased when fruits were handled ...

We analyze 35 Eocene and Neogene floras from Europe (fruits, leaves, and pollen of woody taxa) to trace fruit dispersal syndromes in the fossil record. These derive from vegetation units spanning paratropical broad-leaved evergreen, mixed mesophytic, broad-leaved evergreen, and broad-leaved deciduous forests. The dispersal syndromes distinguished are fleshy and nonfleshy zoochorous, anemochorous, autochorous, and hydrochorous. Additionally, zonal and azonal taxa were distinguished to test whether the dispersal syndromes are equally distributed reflected in the zonal and azonal record. The results show very similar proportions of dispersal modes in the fossil record compared to modern forests. This suggests a consistent relationship in the Northern Hemisphere between vegetation type and dispersal spectrum in the last 50 million years. Paratropical forests show the highest values of fleshy zoochorous taxa and the lowest of anemochorous taxa. Fleshy zoochorous proportions remain high in broad-leaved evergreen forests. They are lower in subhumid sclerophyllous and lowest in broad-leaved deciduous forests. For anemochorous taxa this trend is inverted: lowest values derive from paratropical forests and highest from subhumid sclerophyllous and broad-leaved deciduous forests. Nonfleshy zoochorous taxa always show relatively low percentages but their values are somewhat higher in subhumid sclerophyllous and broad-leaved deciduous forests than in broad-leaved evergreen forests. Autochorous and hydrochorous dispersal modes are always very low. Whether in the Eocene or Neogene, the azonal record always has a higher anemochorous fraction. Because climate change instigates vegetational change, our findings link climate to changing resources for smaller vertebrates, although the consistent availability of nonfleshy zoochorous fruits since the late Eocene suggests a consistent resource, especially for rodents. Publication: Fruit ecology of eocene and neogene plant assemblages in Europe: Tracing shifts in dispersal syndromes. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235351012_Fruit_ecology_of_eocene_and_neogene_plant_assemblages_in_Europe_Tracing_shifts_in_dispersal_syndromes [accessed Apr 10, 2017].

American Journal of Primatology, 1998

This paper reviews our current knowledge on Near-Eastern fruit tree domestication, and compares this to the data presented by Daniel Zohary and Pinhas Spiegel-Roy in their seminal paper “Beginnings of Fruit Growing in the Old World”, which was published in Science in 1975. In both papers, the data under consideration include discussion of archaeobotanical assemblages from representative sites across southwest Asia, as well as data provided by living plants particularly by wild relatives of the crops concerned and molecular data of the crop plants and their wild relatives. On the one hand, it was found that many of Zohary and Spiegel-Roy’s conclusions remain valid the wild progenitors of domesticated fruit trees, olives, grapevine and dates were domesticated during the Chalcolithic period, and fig during the Early Bronze Age period. On the other hand, molecular data indicate that in both the olive and grapevine, genetic materials outside the Levant were later added to the domesticated stock, and that the center of domestication for grapes does not actually include Greece, but was actually only in the Levant; that figs were domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean, rather than all over the Mediterranean; and that Lower Mesopotamia is still a plausible center of date domestication, along with the southern Fertile Crescent oases.

International Journal of Primatology, 2020

Certain features of both extant and fossil anthropoid primates have been interpreted as adaptations to ripe fruit foraging and feeding particularly spatulate incisors and trichromatic color vision. Here, we approach the question of anthropoid fruit foraging adaptations in light of the sensory and mechanical properties of anthropoid-consumed fruits in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We quantify the color, odor, size, and puncture resistance of fruits in Kibale that are consumed by anthropoid primates (N = 44) and compare these with the same traits of fruits that are not consumed by anthropoid primates (N = 24). Contrary to extant hypotheses, color and odor of anthropoidconsumed fruits do not differ from non-anthropoid-consumed fruits. However, we find that anthropoids in this system consume fruits that are significantly larger than nonanthropoid-consumed fruits, and with the exception of elephants that consume very large fruits, are the only dispersers of fruits with a surface area <4032 mm 2 , and a maximum diameter of 52 mm. While our findings do not support most extant hypotheses for the evolution of derived anthropoid primate traits as adaptations to ripe fruit foraging, we find some evidence to support the hypothesis that spatulate incisors may be an adaptation to foraging on large fruits, which tend to be harder.

Agronomy, 2023

The Prunus genus contains many of the most economically significant arboreal crops, cultivated globally, today. Despite the economic significance of these domesticated species, the precultivation ranges, processes of domestication, and routes of prehistoric dispersal for all of the economically significant species remain unresolved. Among the European plums, even the taxonomic classification has been heavily debated over the past several decades. In this manuscript, we compile archaeobotanical evidence for the most prominent large-fruiting members of Prunus, including peach, apricot, almonds, sloes, and the main plum types. By mapping out the chronology and geographic distributions of these species, we are able to discuss aspects of their domestication and dispersal more clearly, as well as identify gaps in the data and unanswered questions. We suggest that a clearer understanding of these processes will say a lot about ancient peoples, as the cultivation of delayed return crops is an indicator of a strong concept of land tenure and the specialization of these cultivation strategies seems to be tied to urbanism and reliable markets. Likewise, the evolution of domestication traits in long-generation perennials, especially within Rosaceae, represents awareness of grafting and cloning practices.

Acta Oecologica, 2011

2021