New Zealand Tree Still Acts Like Moas Exist
This article is melancholy. Scientists are trying to figure out if a tree evolved its distinct metamorphoses (stages of growth where the plant changes shape and color drastically) came about to avoid it being eaten by the Moa, a very large herbivorous bird that was hunted to extinction by humans.
"Many scientists think that the tree evolved these metamorphoses to avoid moas, the main herbivores on the islands and a relative of emus and ostriches that humans hunted to extinction.
To test the moa hypothesis, Kevin C. Burns, an evolutionary ecologist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and colleagues compared lancewood leaves with those from the similar tree Pseudopanax chathamicus. This species, which scientists think evolved from lancewood, grows on the Chatham Islands 800 kilometers east of New Zealand, where moas didn't live.
To determine how the trees would appear to a moa, the team measured the wavelength and brightness of light reflected by the leaves. Light from the lancewood seedling foliage differed from that of the Chatham trees but matched the light from dead leaves on the forest floor, the researchers report online this month in New Phytologist. Because the seedlings stand only 10 centimeters tall, the scientists concluded that the leaves' color would help a young, tender plant blend in with leaf litter and hide it from a browsing moa."
If only we had moas around to ask. Ah well! But we didn't know any better. We (as a species) probably hunted them to death around 1400 AD.
"Many scientists think that the tree evolved these metamorphoses to avoid moas, the main herbivores on the islands and a relative of emus and ostriches that humans hunted to extinction.
To test the moa hypothesis, Kevin C. Burns, an evolutionary ecologist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and colleagues compared lancewood leaves with those from the similar tree Pseudopanax chathamicus. This species, which scientists think evolved from lancewood, grows on the Chatham Islands 800 kilometers east of New Zealand, where moas didn't live.
To determine how the trees would appear to a moa, the team measured the wavelength and brightness of light reflected by the leaves. Light from the lancewood seedling foliage differed from that of the Chatham trees but matched the light from dead leaves on the forest floor, the researchers report online this month in New Phytologist. Because the seedlings stand only 10 centimeters tall, the scientists concluded that the leaves' color would help a young, tender plant blend in with leaf litter and hide it from a browsing moa."
If only we had moas around to ask. Ah well! But we didn't know any better. We (as a species) probably hunted them to death around 1400 AD.
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