The scientists focused on Ceratocaryum argenteum, which is found in the fire-prone shrub lands on deep sands in South Africa. The researchers discovered that this clever ruse gets dung beetles to spread the seeds. "Imagine the smell of a sheep or goat dropping - that is what they smell like," Midgley told Live Science. Now, Midgley and his colleagues found nuts in South Africa that resemble antelope droppings. Some plants do produce hard red or black seeds that resemble berries, such as the lucky bean tree of South Africa, but these do not seem to fool birds, and are hardly ever eaten or dispersed, he said. However, until now, there were no convincing examples of seeds that used mimicry to disperse themselves, said study lead author Jeremy Midgley, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
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