Abundance and Diversity of Seeds in Digestive Tracts of Terrapene Carolina and T. Ornata in Southwestern Missouri (Report‪)‬

Angiosperms have evolved a multitude of external dispersal adaptations, including wind (anemochory), water (hydrochory), animal (zoochory), and self-dispersal (autochory; Fenner, 1985). Dispersal of seeds via animals also can occur internally within the digestive tract (endozoochory), and has been documented across multiple animal phyla (McRill and Sager, 1973; Renner, 1992; Gervais et al., 1998; Witmer, 1998). Most studies concerning frugivory and endozoochory center on avian and mammalian systems (Braun and Brooks, 1987) partly because they are viewed as the most important dispersers of seeds of modern gymnosperms and angiosperms (Fleming and Lips, 1991); however, reptiles also can play an important selective force in evolution of angiosperms (Tiffney, 1986). During the Cretaceous period, pterosaurs might have been important dispersers of seeds, initiating a role later filled by birds and mammals (Fleming and Lips, 1991). Presumably, pterosaurs occupied the niche currently filled by modern birds. Despite their past evolutionary influence, recognition of reptiles as modern dispersers of seeds has received relatively little attention (Moll and Jansen, 1995).