Comment on Preppers helped fulfill their own prophecy

DoGeeseSeeGod@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

• XeroxCool@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Well peppers also fulfilled their own prophecy. The theory I like on their evolutionary traits (being spicy) is that they had generally low seed dispersion rate through animal ingestion. Upon the development of capsacin, leg-based mammals avoided the pain from the spicy. Birds do not have receptors in their mouths that react to that (side note, capsacin is not actually harmful and doesn’t injure your mouth. It just tricks your heat receptors.). So with much greater mobility, birds carried the seeds much further than mammals. Pretty good for a plant to get around, right?

  Well, not as good as humans getting addicted to the stuff and spreading the plants across the entire planet. Actually, further. Astronauts have a bit of a desire for additional spice because food flavors are dulled up there. So the animal group the plants wanted to avoid became their greatest proponent.

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  • shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    You got most of it. I’d only add; Problem for the pepper is that herbivores grind up the seeds where birds swallow them whole.

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• Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Old White people can’t handle the spice.

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  • RaoulDuke@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    They think ketchup is spicy

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• blackluster117@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?

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  • CobblerScholar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Johnny 5 is alive!

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