Browsing antelope turned ancient African forests into grassy savanna ecosystems
Tuesday, September 6, 2016 - 14:24
in Biology & Nature
By comparing the timing of the evolution of thorns on about 2,000 woody tree species in southern Africa and the time that antelopes arrived in Africa, a group of scientists found that trees like African acacias evolved thorns as a defense mechanism at exactly the same time that antelope arrived in Africa.