Neotropical Anachronisms: The Fruits the Gomphotheres Ate

@article{Janzen1982NeotropicalAT,
  title={Neotropical Anachronisms: The Fruits the Gomphotheres Ate},
  author={Daniel H. Janzen and Paul S. Martin},
  journal={Science},
  year={1982},
  volume={215},
  pages={19 - 27}
}
Frugivory by extinct horses, gomphotheres, ground sloths, and other Pleistocene megafauna offers a key to understanding certain plant reproductive traits in Central American lowland forests. When over 15 genera of Central American large herbivores became extinct roughly 10,000 years ago, seed dispersal and subsequent distributions of many plant species were altered. Introduction of horses and cattle may have in part restored the local ranges of such trees as jicaro (Crescentia alata) and… 
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