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Why Avocados Still Exist

2021-10-26 · explainer · John · 3:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Personal essay

John explains that the avocado's huge seed evolved for dispersal by American megafauna that went extinct about 12,000 years ago, and that the avocado survived partly because its trees live so long and probably mostly through humans; he argues humans are not merely a force of destruction.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The avocado's huge seed and the megafauna of the Americas it coevolved with

  • ★★ John says the avocado's seed, the 'toy' inside like a Kinder egg's, is far larger than an apple seed or acorn because the avocado tree coevolved with American megafauna. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John lists huge animals once in the Americas: a beaver of almost 300 pounds, the mastodon, the American lion, the dire wolf, glyptotherium up to 2,000 pounds, 15-foot giant sloths and massive bears. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — The end-Pleistocene extinctions, their debated causes, and the loss of seed dispersal by giant animals

  • ★★★ John says these animals lived in the Americas for over a million years before going extinct, with many other large mammal species, about 12,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says why they went extinct is much debated: some argue climate change was the main factor, others that human behavior including hunting may have contributed. — 00:01:05 · climate change
  • ★★ John says giant animals could eat avocados and poop out the seeds, getting fats and vitamins while spreading and fertilizing the avocado. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says when the large animals went extinct this dispersal strategy vanished, and many large-seeded trees declined or went extinct, with the major exception of the avocado. — 00:01:42

00:01:56 — Why the avocado survived: long-lived trees and humans eating, trading and spreading it

  • ★★ John says avocado trees can live over 400 years, giving them a long runway to learn to live without giant mammals. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ John says humans were probably the biggest factor: there is evidence of humans eating avocados 9 or 10,000 years ago, and they may have traded and cultivated them earlier. (hedged) — 00:02:08

00:02:26 — Human choices reverberate for millennia; smaller pits could let the avocado outlive humans because of us; sign-off

  • ★★ John says via humans the avocado spread from its home in what is now central Mexico to South America, the Caribbean and eventually the world. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ John finds it encouraging that ancient humans did us a huge favor by preserving the avocado, and a reminder that human choices can reverberate for tens of thousands of years. — 00:02:30
  • ★★ John says contemporary humans have begun trying to make avocado pits smaller so there is more avocado in avocados. — 00:02:45
  • ★★★ John says if this succeeds, seeds could become small enough for a raccoon to poop out, so the avocado might survive the age of humans as it survived the Pleistocene, because of us. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John says humans are not merely a force of destruction in the world and certainly don't have to be; the avocado is a reminder of that. — 00:03:15

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a comment John notes that, by the most recent evidence, mastodons were around for most of the time humans have been in the Americas. — creator comment
  • ★ In comments John asks viewers whether they have signed up to be told when the Awesome Socks Club opens. — creator comment · Awesome Socks Club

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: avocado · Megafauna

Also: Works: A Song of Ice and Fire

Concepts: American lion · bear · climate change · coevolution · dire wolf · giant beaver · Glyptotherium · ground sloth · human impact on the environment · mastodon · Pleistocene · Quaternary extinction event · seed dispersal · selective breeding

Places: Americas · Caribbean · Mexico · South America

Products: Kinder Surprise

Only in the description or credits: Awesome Socks Club

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