Ecology

1. Research topic is ambiguous from topic sentence at first. But as I read through the abstract, it becomes more clear that the article is going to talk about as relationship between Cavalria major and dodo birds in an island called Mauritius, related to coevolution. So I think the author introduces the topic in clear terms.
2. The author introduces what Calvaria major is, how it used to be germinated in the past in presence of dodo, and relationship between extinction of Calvaria major germination and dodo. However, it would have been easier to follow his article if he briefly had described definition of mutualism and coevolution for non-science major students. The author implies that the extinction of dodo results in Calvaria major’s incapability to be germinated, based on which his hypothesis is postulated. Thus it is easy to follow the paper’s summary.
3. When dodo bird was extinct in the past, Calvaria major started to become extinct in the island because the seed of Calvaria was not able to be germinated, which required lots of force so that its seed coat was peeled off.
4. His idea is that the dodo bird’s digestive tract is strong enough to abrade the seed coat of Calvaria major, which results in germination, but now that dodo bird is extinct, the seed coat fails to be germinated, which leads to decrease number of Calvaria major. However, as he notes that Dodo bird was extinct almost 300 years ago, I am highly skeptical how Calvaria major is still existing today because the tree should be also extinct too during 300 years. Therefore, he needs to provide the average life span of the tree that is enough for Calvaria major so that he proves the dodo is the strong factor that influences the germination of the tree. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain how the tree is still extant today, which should have been extinct long times ago.
5. Treatment is that based on the formula he postulates, he calculates how much force would be generated by dodo, and then sees if the force generated is enough to abrade the seed coat withstand force. Control is different weight of turkey that is replaced with dodo. Since dodo bird is extinct today, the means to test his hypothesis is very limited.
6. As a result, the seed coat withstand force is generally stronger than force generated by dodo. Yet, only after the seed is retained in digestive tract for long time, is the