ArticleNature communications2020
Frugivore-fruit size relationships between palms and mammals reveal past and future defaunation impacts.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- The complex interaction between mammalian herbivores, climate, soil and fire has shaped the evolution and distribution of plant spinescence across biogeographical realms.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Airborne eDNA Reveals Resource-Based Assembly of Frugivorous Vertebrates.Molecular ecology resources · 2025Article
- Legacy of the Lost and Pressure of the Present: Malagasy Plant Seeds Retain Megafauna Dispersal Signatures but Downsize Under Human Pressure.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Fossil evidence of proboscidean frugivory and its lasting impact on South American ecosystems.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- The need for carbon finance schemes to tackle overexploitation of tropical forest wildlife.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2025Article
- Weaker Plant-Frugivore Trait Matching Towards the Tropics and on Islands.Ecology letters · 2025Review
- Why do understoreyEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Deep biogeographic barriers explain divergent global vertebrate communities.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Climatic stability and geological history shape global centers of neo- and paleoendemism in seed plants.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Form and contour: breeding and genetics of organ shape from wild relatives to modern vegetable crops.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Review
- Global plant-frugivore trait matching is shaped by climate and biogeographic history.Ecology letters · 2022Article
- Seed Size Variation of Trees and Lianas in a Tropical Forest of Southeast Asia: Allometry, Phylogeny, and Seed Trait - Plant Functional Trait Relationships.Frontiers in plant science · 2022Article
- Fruit Size and Structure of Zoochorous Trees: Identifying Drivers for the Foraging Preferences of Fruit-Eating Birds in a Mexican Successional Dry Forest.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- In situ radiation explains the frequency of dioecious palms on islands.Annals of botany · 2021Article
- Seed dispersers shape the pulp nutrients of fleshy-fruited plants.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Exaptation Traits for Megafaunal Mutualisms as a Factor in Plant Domestication.Frontiers in plant science · 2021Article
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5 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mammalian frugivores are critical seed dispersers, but many are under threat of extinction. Futhermore, the impact of past and future defaunation on plant assemblages has yet to be quantified at the global scale. Here, we integrate palm and mammalian frugivore trait and occurrence data and reveal a global positive relationship between fruit size and frugivore body size. Global variation in fruit size is better explained by present-day frugivore assemblages than by Late Pleistocene assemblages, suggesting ecological and evolutionary reorganization after end-Pleistocene extinctions, except in the Neotropics, where some large-fruited palm species may have outlived their main seed dispersers by thousands of years. Our simulations of frugivore extinction over the next 100 years suggest that the impact of defaunation will be highest in the Old World tropics, and an up to 4% assemblage-level decrease in fruit size would be required to maintain the global body size-fruit size relationship. Overall, our results suggest that while some palm species may be able to keep pace with future defaunation through evolutionary changes in fruit size, large-fruited species may be especially vulnerable to continued defaunation.
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