WOW! Can I say, WOW! Are you sitting down? You may want to before you read this. The relationship I am about to tell you about is pretty amazing. Coevolution is never a dull topic and the following example may be one of the coolest in the living world. Meet Marcgravia evenia. This vining plant species is native to Cuba and, like other members of its genus, relies on bats for pollination. This is nothing new. Many plant species utilize bats as pollen vectors. Bat pollinated flowers are often quite fragrant, using powerful odors to tap into the bats keen sense of smell. Marcgravia evenia is different though. This tropical vine taps into another batty sense, echolocation. Right above the flowers is a dish-shaped leaf. This leaf functions as a reflector for the bats sonar! Indeed, when tested, bats were twice as likely to find plants with these dish-shaped leaves than they were if the leaves were removed. This is an incredible coevolutionary adaptation! Because the vines are rare in the wild, anything that would increase the likelihood of a bat visitation would incur a considerable selective advantage. The dish-shaped leaves do just that. According to the authors of the research paper, the leafs echoes fulfilled requirements for an effective beacon, that is, they were strong, multidirectional, and had a recognizable invariant echo signature. Nature never fails to amaze! Photo Credit: Ralph Simon Further Reading: sciencemag.org/content/333/6042/631
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:02:21 +0000
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