I say ‘intentionally’ because, by gathering, eating and discarding seeds and nuts, they probably accidentally began the process of selecting plants, adapting plant evolution to favour the eventual growth of agriculture.
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Suppose you are out picking berries. Some you will eat right there, but almost certainly you will carry some back to your family and friends at your camp. You will also probably select the larger and juicier-looking fruit. Some plants rely on a pod-opening mechanism to spread seeds, but if one of these plants mutates, it loses the pod-opening gene, which means when you come along the tasty seeds are still there.
OK, so you come back to the camp with your spoils and everyone tucks in. Not long afterwards you are going to need to use the bathroom – well, you don’t have a bathroom, but you almost certainly have a latrine somewhere, or at least you and your group are in the habit of walking a little way off into the bush to do what needs to be done.
From the plants point of view, you have just planted the seeds of the biggest berries or of the non-popping legume, in a nice rich growing medium.
Months later when your lot come round this way again, there are slightly bigger juicy berries and a whole bunch of the non-popping legume waiting for you.
