So I am looking at my melons and wondering why they are so big. Fruits evolved to entice animals to spread the seeds of the fruit bearing tree/plant so it makes sense they would be pleasing to the eye, tasty, and of a size that could be easily manipulated by the animal spreading the seeds. But watermelons are not a convient size like say an orange or an apple. In fact they are quite cumbersome for most animals.

The only thing I can think of is in addition to providing the animal with delicious fruit to eat, watermelons also provide a source of relatively clean water as an enticing element. Hence the necessity of the large size.

Okay if thats so with my melons, then what about my pumpkins? Why are they so big?

In before affirming the consequent.

[ ] Thread delivers

**** evolution is false. It must be God.

Melons or swift egress.

large animals like large fruits. they coevolved with dinosaurs.

that, or humans prefer to cultivate larger fruits for obvious reasons.

.

we like to eat big water melons, so we select the seeds of the biggest water melons and plant those. is this not obvious?

Hi Stu

(cant resist but admit the title sounded very sexy initially, lol, in fact it could even be another topic in itself with probably similar analysis)


You need to look for some wild fruit something not impacted by man for say the past 10000 years of agricultural revolution to see such arguments and wonder. Pumpkins for example are notorious for the massive manipulation taking place to enlarge them over time.

Think of it like dogs. The variety of dogs out there is amazingly ridiculous. And its all a result of human intervention for thousands of years.

No doubt even some wild fruit will exist that is counterintuitive. Maybe its targeting big animals that can manipulate it and eat it with some effort.

The idea that plants over time produce fruit suitable for particular animals is remarkable in itself and shows in a major way the amazing power of time. Adaptation of this type is definitely a clue of how old the planet is . Its ridiculous to understand as child and yet even as adult how large the age of the earth is compared with our lifetime which in itself is a pretty decent time interval full of so many experiences and changes. And yet we are talking hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Imagine how many millions of generations of plants for example. How long it takes to select and march across a particular path if you have 1 mil generations or even 100 mil for plants that live only 1 year. The entire evolution experience is magnificent to grasp and in the end a total apotheosis of probability theory in all its glory. Convergence to most probable outcomes in front of your eyes and yet at the same time eventual emergence of the most improbable path exactly for the same reason ie sufficiently long time intervals. The power of time is indeed amazing.

The fact is you can use the example of manipulation introduced by man to gauge the speed of evolution itself before even using lab experiments and proper theory to do the same the right way (well controled and understood) . I mean look at how long it took us to develop certain crops or animal features. And still we only did that with conscious effort within only 10k years and really very seriously about 1-3k which is nothing really. Then maybe a particular animal interaction with plants that lasts 100k-1mil years can indeed produce something similar if done with less consious /coordinated effort. Still give something 1-10 mil years and apparently its plenty of time to do a lot. Look even to modern human and see how we have changed within 5 mil years as species (and the modern version only 200k or so , compare that version with the one 5 mil years ago in the branch of higher primates we belong)

Never would have occureed to me. I hate water melons.

* grunch *

Stephanie,

Perhaps the reason why your melons are so big is to tempt those succoring themselves with your sweet fruit to take a very large d*mp in your vicinity.

Your melons grow on a vine, after all, so are part of a larger, stationary community, which will benefit from the fertilization.


This is a guesstimate.

Small ones are more juicy.

That may be, but there is definitely a satisfaction in burying your face in large melons that you cannot get from a melon that is small enough to cup in your palm. I don't know if this pleasure has enough impact to be evolutionarily important, though.

They are all good in my opinion and do not need artificial enhancement means. EVER

Take this crap elsewhere. OOT is my suggestion.

Thread closed.

-Zeno