Agouti Eating Palm Seeds

Big seeds produced by many tropical trees were probably once ingested and then defecated whole by huge mammals called gomphotheres that dispersed the seeds over large distances. But gomphotheres were probably hunted to extinction more than 10,000 years ago. So why aren’t large-seeded plants also extinct?

Hungry rodents that wake up early are much more likely to be eaten than rodents getting plenty of food and shut-eye, according to new results from a study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.