An example of brief notes to recall an author’s points:

 

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Coevolving mutual interdependence

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Beauty and the Beast: The coevolution of Plants and Animals, by Susan Grant

(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984.) 

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10 Chapters on the fundamental importance of symbiosis.

R versus K species | Coevolution | photograph of mutual need | Insects

 

 

flowers Did flowers disperse so widely because insects are so widely dispersed ?

 

ch 1:

“Mutual Injury, mutual Aid: Patterns in Coevolution.”

 

Originally beetles pollinated and ate the flower, still do in magnolias; but bees are the primary pollinator for wild angiosperms and many grain and fruit crops!

page 4)

 

“Interdependence has replaced original neutrality of injury.” as a means of describing the origins and maintenance of diverse life on earth.

 

“animals’ impact can be great on the transport [dispersal] and survival of seeds.”

 

“careful studies have found that these algae play an immense role in feeding their animal hosts.”

 

“role of ants in relation to flowering plants . . . “ has changed. . . . “from villain to hero.”

 

page 5)

“coevolved relationships are always vulnerable to change.”

 

ch 3: is about R & K species;

 

“r” species are opportunistic colonizers who exploit disturbance, while

“k” species need stability to prosper.

 

ch 4: is about Allelopathy

 

plants secrete poisonous chemicals to ward off competition and reduce predation.

 

“Natural selection as a result has favored chemically armed plants; they are abundant in all dry-land communities.”

 

flavonoids protect land plants from the sun and are distasteful to predators.

 

35) California Indians washed Tannic acids from the acorn to eat the fruit of the oaks.

 

tannins in China black teas induce the risk for esophageal cancer.

 

terpenoids are predator repellents.

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5-6: Coevolution

butterflyflower

 

“one ecologist has even suggested that human cookery originated in the need to detoxify abundant and nutritious seeds of wild legumes."

 

Insects are most likely the pollinating agents that led to a spread of angiosperms hence the trees and flowering shrubs we see today are the architecture of their desires .

 

 

7: bees as expert pollinators

 

coevolution

116) “bees remain essentially independent of humanity. . . . that very independence is part of their perennial fascination.”

 

 

 

Coevolve

Lepidopteran, or butterfly in search of nectar, Japan, 2007 JVS.

8: warm blooded pollinators bats and birds

birds

Martin Johnson Heade's painting of birds and orchids of South American rainforests.  

 

120) plants that have coevolved with hummingbirds produce flowers that are odorless, bright, and rich in nectar.

 

“human involvement with the genetic pollination of plants is substantial

 

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* 1420 megahertz is the “broadcast” frequency of hydrogen atoms


 

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