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LETTER OF THE MONTH
Peek-a-poo!
I’ve been watching David Attenborough’s new series The Green Planet. There was a plant that made its seeds the same size and appearance as antelope poo – it even smells like it! The plant has done this to fool dung beetles into taking the seeds and burying them, in order to give them the best chance of germinating, as the favourite food of dung beetles in the area is antelope poo. My first thought was: “That’s amazing!” However, my second thought was:
“But how does the plant know what antelope poo looks or smells like?” Then I must confess, my third thought was: “I bet someone at BBC Science Focus could tell me.” So here I am. I’m hoping that you can tell me as I’m intrigued.
Kate Harris
Thanks to evolution, the plant has developed the perfect cocktail of volatile chemicals to attract dung beetles. It didn’t ‘know’ what the poo looked or smelled like, it merely developed its shape and aroma thanks to random genetic mutations taking place over thousands of years. Those seeds that successfully germinated after being taken by dung beetles were more likely to survive, and therefore passed their pong-producing genes onto their offspring. You can read more about species that look like faeces here: bit.ly/poo_animals Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, managing editor