Edit: I meant specifically humans.

  • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
    241·
    1 year ago

    Watermelons used to be only 50mm in diameter and tasted very bitter. You had to hit them with a hammer to crack em open. Circa 3000 BC

      • Square Singer@feddit.de
        144·
        1 year ago

        It is, if you count humans as part of nature, which they are in respect to natural selection.

        Flowers and blossoms are selected by their attractiveness to bees and other insects. Apples were selected by their attractiveness to bears (yes, bears where the first to domesticate apples). And watermelons were selected by their attractiveness to humans.

        Only GMOs don’t fall into the category of natural selection.

          • Square Singer@feddit.de
            21·
            1 year ago

            I don’t think so, at least in the context of natural selection.

            GMOs for example are certainly not part of natural selection.

              • Square Singer@feddit.de
                2·
                1 year ago

                That’s true if you talk about nature as such. I was just talking about the selection part.

                The thing is that there are quite a few species that “domesticate” other species. And while doing so, they conciously select for the specimen that best fits their needs.

                Bears domesticated apples, selecting for the biggest aand sweetest, thus apples evolved from small and bitter to a bit larger and sweeter.

                Ants farm aphids and also there they select for those that yield the most milk.

                The big difference between humans and animals is that we form much more of these symbiotic relationships.