Have frugivores influenced the evolution of fruit traits in New Zealand?

Abstract

This paper evaluates the New Zealand fleshy-fruited flora for traits associated with the features of the main New Zealand frugivore guilds (e.g. birds and mammals). It also describes the New Zealand flora and identifies 3 frugivore guilds, which are examined in detail with reference to specific fruit traits to test whether these frugivores have influenced fruit evolution in New Zealand.

The importance of lizards as frugivores and seed dispersers.

“…Captive Oligosoma lizards prefer blue and white Coprosma fruit to white and red ones. However, as Lord et al (2002) also point out, this lizard dispersal syndrome cannot be applied to other floras, and differences can be related to the taxonomic composition of the lizard fauna. The guild of frugivorous lizards from New Zealand consists of six species of Gekkonidae and 13 species of Scincidae (Whitaker, 1987, and references therein;Patterson, 1992;Cogger et al, 1993;Spencer et al, 1998).…”

“…Recently, and using a comprehensive database of fruit characters from the New Zealand flora (n = 246 plant species), Lord and Marshall (2001) and Lord et al (2002) found some support for a lizard-fruit syndrome. They suggest that lizards may be of importance in the evolution of fruit from shrub species with divaricated branches, growing in open, dry habitats.…”

“…6.3). For example, unlike the New Zealand frugivorous lizards (see Lord and Marshall, 2001;Lord et al, 2002), red (Tamus edulis; Dioscoreaceae), black (Rhamnus crenulata; Rhamnaceae), white (Bencomia caudata; Rosaceae), orange (Canarina canariensis; Campanulaceae) and translucent (Plocama pendula; Rubiaceae) fruits, which can be up to 27 mm in diameter (Canarina canariensis) with seeds up to 9 mm in diameter and the number of seeds per fruit up to 1395 (in Canarina canariensis) are heavily consumed in different habitats and islands by the Canarian lizards (Gallotia spp. ; Lacertidae).…”

“…We looked for any association between colour of fruit consumed by lizards and colour spectrum of fleshy fruits on these three archipelagos. Lord and Marshall (2001) and Lord et al (2002) presented frequency distributions of colours of fleshy fruit for a large sample of New Zealand species. In our analysis, we used their data but lumped several of their colour categories (pink into red, yellow and orange; and purple into black).…”

Effects of gut passage on the germination of seeds ingested by didelphid marsupials in a neotropical savanna

“…In this interaction, animals tend to consume fruits from various species and the fruits tend to be consumed by a wide range of animals (Charles Dominique 1993; Lord et al 2002). For the plant, seed dispersal by animals increases the likelihood of offspring survival by facilitating the removal of the seeds away from the zone of high mortality near the parent plant as well as conquering new environments potentially favorable for seed germination and seedling development (Janzen 1970;Howe et al 1985;Howe 1993).…”