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New Zealand Tree Stuck In Evolutionary Time Warp

Posted by Soulskill on from the decompress-the-shuttlebay dept.

sciencehabit writes "A eucalyptus-like tree from New Zealand is still waging a battle that should have ended over 500 years ago. The tree continues to sport evolutionary adaptations, such as barbed leaves, to protect it from a large, flightless bird known as a moa. There's just one problem: the moa went extinct around 1500 AD."

1 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Clever Modding by mR.bRiGhTsId3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would have assumed the plants kept their evolutionary advantages against herbivores because there is insufficient pressure to remove the spines on the leaves. Kind of like why we still have an appendix. Its useless, but appendicitis is sufficiently uncommon that there isn't enough evolutionary pressure to do away with it completely.