Persians. Romans. Chinese. Guptas. Abbasids. Mongols. British. The list of the world’s largest empires is a list of different peoples of Eurasia. With the sole exception of ancient Egypt, the Eurasian landmass has been the breeding ground for the largest empire of each moment in history. Why?
I really enjoyed your latest podcast with Ideen Riahi. Just one minor correction I can suggest was about the brief mention of avocados being eaten by giant ground sloths: an image I loved as soon as I heard about it a few years ago. Unfortunately, it seems that it's wrong. Here's a video explaining why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcBgYYFS8o
The plot thickens! Does anyone know more about this great avocado debate🥑 ? Thanks already to both Lawrence and Ideen — interesting to see if we can get to the bottom of this 🤔
I know very little about this topic, but avocados are a member of the laurel family, and totally coincidentally my name, Lawrence Baum, means Laurel Tree. So I had to investigate at least a bit further 😁! In the description beneath Hank Green's YouTube video I mentioned above, click "...more". Scroll down to see a list of sources. I looked through these and briefly summarize several:
I really enjoyed your latest podcast with Ideen Riahi. Just one minor correction I can suggest was about the brief mention of avocados being eaten by giant ground sloths: an image I loved as soon as I heard about it a few years ago. Unfortunately, it seems that it's wrong. Here's a video explaining why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcBgYYFS8o
Oh thank you Lawrence for this! Such is power of social networks in the creation of knowledge.
PS. I was glad to see Hank Green behind your link 😁
Thanks, Lawrence, for the correction.
The last paper I saw on this topic was by Spengler et al. (2022): https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.649394/full
Could you please share the sources used in the video? I couldn't find them.
The plot thickens! Does anyone know more about this great avocado debate🥑 ? Thanks already to both Lawrence and Ideen — interesting to see if we can get to the bottom of this 🤔
I know very little about this topic, but avocados are a member of the laurel family, and totally coincidentally my name, Lawrence Baum, means Laurel Tree. So I had to investigate at least a bit further 😁! In the description beneath Hank Green's YouTube video I mentioned above, click "...more". Scroll down to see a list of sources. I looked through these and briefly summarize several:
One species of South American Pleistocene ground sloth coprolites had molecules likely from Yucca and Agave: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research/article/abs/lipid-analysis-of-a-ground-sloth-coprolite/3CB7895E343F7A0B2188F8B3CB14031C
Avocado seeds grew in size during the history of human selection: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02904012
Evidence suggests that Lestodon ground sloths didn't live where avocados grew, and they probably ate grasses. Other sloth species lived near avocados, and coprolites showed these sloths sometimes ate fruit, but not avocados. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353982166_Lestodon_doesn't_want_your_avocado_toast_debunking_the_dietary_myths_of_late_Pleistocene_sloths_Mammalia_Pilosa#fullTextFileContent
Haha, this is great investigative work! Thank you Lawrence! 🥑
Thank you, Ilari. I look forward to more of your fascinating podcasts!
LOL