FSD 2010 - Fleming

5th International Symposium-Workshop on Frugivores and Seed Dispersal (1985-2010)

Theodore H. Fleming

Emeritus Professor, University of Miami, and Adjunct
Professor, University of Arizona USA.

Email: tedfleming-at-dakotacom.net

Website

Activities

I have studied mutualistic interactions between tropical bats and their food plants for over 40 years. This work has taken place in Panama, Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, and Arizona. These studies originally focused on frugivory and seed dispersal but shifted to pollination and nectarivory 20 years ago. I am currently synthesizing our knowledge about the ecology and evolution of these mutualisms in a book (The Ornaments of Life, University of Chicago Press).

Abstract

A brief history of fruits and frugivores in time and space

Many angiosperm plants produce fleshy fruit and rely on birds and mammals to disperse their seeds in contemporary habitats. This mutualism has had a long evolutionary history, beginning in the late Cretaceous for flowering plants. Modern fruit-frugivore interactions date from the Oligocene or Miocene, by which time most elements of modern floras and faunas had evolved. In this talk I will review this mutualism from a plant and animal phylogenetic perspective, emphasizing major themes in the evolution of frugivory and seed dispersal. One of these themes will be how biogeographic history has influenced this evolution. I will close with comments on the contemporary conservation implications of this ancient plant-animal interaction. (Photo Carollia perspicillata and Piper tuberculatum © Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International)

Recent representative publications

Fleming, T. H. 2004. Dispersal ecology of neotropical Piper shrubs and treelets. Pp. 58-77 in L. Dyer (ed.) Biology of the Piperaceae. Academic Press.

Fleming, T.H. 2005. The relationship between species richness of vertebrate mutualists and their food plants in tropical and subtropical communities differs among hemispheres. Oikos 111: 556-562.

Muscarella, R., and T. H. Fleming. 2007. The role of frugivorous bats in tropical forest succession. Biological Reviews 82: 573-590.

Fleming, T.H., and N. Muchhala. 2008. Nectar-feeding bird and bat niches in two worlds: a pantropical comparison. Journal of Biogeography 35: 764-780.

Fleming, T.H., C.K. Geiselman, and W.J. Kress. 2009. The evolution of bat pollination: a phylogenetic perspective. Annals of Botany in press.

Former FSD presentations

Fleming, T. H. 1986. Opportunism vs. specialization: the evolution of feeding strategies in frugivorous bats. Pp. 105 118 in A. Estrada and T. H. Fleming (eds.) Frugivores and seed dispersal. Tasks for Vegetation Science Series. W. Junk, Netherlands.

Fleming, T. H., D. L. Venable, and L. G. Herrera. 1993. Opportunism vs. specialization: the evolution of dispersal strategies in fleshy-fruited plants. Pp. 107-120 in T. H. Fleming and A. Estrada (eds.) Frugivory and seed dispersal: ecological and evolutionary aspects. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands.