Makes me wonder why they evolved that way? Usually, the point of a fruit is to get the seeds into the gut, so the animal spreads them afield. Shouldn’t the fruit be easily accessible, while the seed is impervious to the stomach acid?
While there is very little to read about prehistoric pomegranates, or at the very least google has let me down once again; it seems herbivores larger than humans were likely the “intended” consumers of pomegranates. As such the larger animals would have an easier time eating the fruit. Potentially eating the whole fruit instead of just targeting the seeds like we do. (This seems to mostly be speculation, and probably mostly speculation on my part)
Don’t listen to me, I have no idea what I’m saying. But I’m just imagining it like a cat/dog treat-ball, with the animal tearing at it trying to get to the juicy part with the fruit flying all over the place spreading its seeds wide and far.
From the top of my head (don’t cite me): I don’t know what the wild fruit looks like. Maybe humans bred it to contain more seeds and thereby made it bigger. Another idea would be that difficult to open leads animals to carry it further and therefore spread the seeds further. Yet another idea: maybe to skin was supposed to fall apart but humans bred it to be stronger or harvest it before its really ripe? All just ideas.
Makes me wonder why they evolved that way? Usually, the point of a fruit is to get the seeds into the gut, so the animal spreads them afield. Shouldn’t the fruit be easily accessible, while the seed is impervious to the stomach acid?
I’m just trying to help here!
While there is very little to read about prehistoric pomegranates, or at the very least google has let me down once again; it seems herbivores larger than humans were likely the “intended” consumers of pomegranates. As such the larger animals would have an easier time eating the fruit. Potentially eating the whole fruit instead of just targeting the seeds like we do. (This seems to mostly be speculation, and probably mostly speculation on my part)
DuckDuckGo ftw 🦆
Don’t listen to me, I have no idea what I’m saying. But I’m just imagining it like a cat/dog treat-ball, with the animal tearing at it trying to get to the juicy part with the fruit flying all over the place spreading its seeds wide and far.
All the food plants we eat have been selectively bred by humans for thousands of years.
From the top of my head (don’t cite me): I don’t know what the wild fruit looks like. Maybe humans bred it to contain more seeds and thereby made it bigger. Another idea would be that difficult to open leads animals to carry it further and therefore spread the seeds further. Yet another idea: maybe to skin was supposed to fall apart but humans bred it to be stronger or harvest it before its really ripe? All just ideas.