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Olduvai George on NPR

Posted by Coturnix on February 22, 2008
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I was lucky to be in the car at the right time this morning to catch a story about Mastodons in Manhattan: A Botanical Puzzle, i.e., why honey locust trees in NYCity have long thorns – an interesting story (click on the link and click on “Listen Now”) which, among others, features our blog-friend Carl Buell.

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Comments

  1. #1 Mary
    February 22, 2008

    Gosh, I woke up to that story this morning. Not a great image to start the day with….

    And just last night I was joking with some friends over dinner about muscle development and mouse and cow tongues. Rather odd coincidence.

  2. #2 Coturnix
    February 22, 2008

    Locusts are beautiful, their flowers smell beautifully, and the locust honey is the best thing ever! But do not try to lick the tree!

  3. #3 Laelaps
    February 22, 2008

    Neat! This reminds me of the Science paper from a two months ago or so about how megaherbivores can change the landscape in Africa. What I would like to know, then, is if the tree produces more thorns/defenses when its being actively browsed versus trees that are not (the acacia trees in the Science study produced more thorns when they were being “attacked” by the herbivores; it’s a plastic response). Thanks for sharing this, Bora!