Why Did It Take Us So Long?

Shop our fall merch sale for the best nerdy science stuff: https://store.dftba.com/collections/m... We've long known that animal pollination is an important way plants reproduce on land, but we're only JUST finding out animals also pollinate plants underwater. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: Zoophily: a form of pollination whereby pollen is transferred by animals Hydrophily: a type of pollination in which pollen is dispersed by the flow of water Seaweed: massive, multicellular algae Spermatia: a nonmotile male gamete of red alga SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: Become our patron:   / minuteearth   Our merch: http://dftba.com/minuteearth Our book: https://minuteearth.com/books Share this video with your friends and family Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Kate Yoshida | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR STAFF ************ Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube |    / minuteearth   TikTok |   / minuteearth   Twitter |   / minuteearth   Instagram |   / minute_earth   Facebook |   / minuteearth   Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... REFERENCES ************** Lavaut, E., Guillemin, M. L., Colin, S., Faure, A., Coudret, J., Destombe, C., & Valero, M. (2022). Pollinators of the sea: A discovery of animal-mediated fertilization in seaweed. Science, 377(6605), 528-530. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo6661 Ollerton, J., & Ren, Z. X. (2022). Did pollination exist before plants?. Science, 377(6605), 471-472. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add3198 van Tussenbroek, B. I., Monroy-Velazquez, L. V., & Solis-Weiss, V. (2012). Meso-fauna foraging on seagrass pollen may serve in marine zoophilous pollination. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 469, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10072 Van Tussenbroek, B. I., Villamil, N., Márquez-Guzmán, J., Wong, R., Monroy-Velázquez, L. V., & Solis-Weiss, V. (2016). Experimental evidence of pollination in marine flowers by invertebrate fauna. Nature communications, 7(1), 12980. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12980