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  • Whether it’s sliced on top of a salad, tucked in a California sushi roll, or mashed as guacamole

    不管是切片放在沙拉上,夾在加州壽司捲裡,或搗成酪梨沙拉醬

  • in a burrito, people seem to love avocados.

    包在捲餅裡,人們似乎頗愛酪梨

  • In fact, people in the United States munched through four billion of them in 2014 alone.

    其實,美國人光是2014年就大啖了40億個酪梨

  • They taste great, theyre good for you -- but one of the most amazing things about avocados

    它們美味可口,對身體有益,不過關於酪梨最驚人的事情之一

  • is that ... they still exist.

    就是...它們仍存在世上

  • See, they had a special relationship with huge beasts that lumbered around Central America

    瞧,它們和在中美洲一帶龜速移動的巨獸有著特殊的關係

  • tens of thousands of years ago.

    早在幾萬年前

  • And when these animals went extinct, avocados could easily have gone down with them.

    而當這些動物絕種後,酪梨可以輕易和牠們合葬

  • But, luckily for us, they were saved by some prehistoric farmers.

    不過,我們很幸運,它們被一些史前時代的農夫所拯救

  • The wordavocadocomes from the Aztecs. Specifically, the Nahuatl word ahuacatl, which

    酪梨這個字源自阿茲提克族。特別的是,納瓦特爾字ahuacatl

  • means ... testicle.

    就代表...睪丸

  • I mean, you can kind of see where they got the name -- it probably has something to do

    我是指,你可以解釋它們從何處被命名,那也許是

  • with the, uh, you know the shape and texture of avocados, the way they hang from trees.

    和,你知道的,酪梨的形狀以及口感,以及它們掛在樹上的樣子

  • Anyway, before they became popular in the rest of the world, they were cultivated in

    無論如何,在世上其他地區普及之前,它們被栽種在

  • Mesoamerica for thousands of years.

    中美洲好幾千年

  • Avocados are a fruitbasically, swollen plant ovaries.

    酪梨是種水果,基本上是植物膨大的子房

  • But, nutritionally, theyre very different from other fruits you’d find at the supermarket.

    然而,就營養價值來看,它們和你在超市找到的水果不太相同

  • Fruits like apples and oranges are composed mostly of water and sugar.

    像蘋果和柳橙大部分是由水分和糖所組成

  • And in general, fruit is probably better for you than, say, a bag of sweets or a sugary

    且普遍來說,水果可能比,例如一包糖果或含糖飲料對你更有益處

  • drink because it contains fiber, which slows down sugar absorption and makes you feel fuller, faster.

    因為它含有纖維,能減緩糖份的吸收並且使你更快得到飽足感

  • By comparison, avocados have much less sugar but more protein and fat. That gives them

    相較之下,酪梨含較少糖份但更多的蛋白質和脂肪。那賦予它們

  • that smooth, creamy texture, but also puts them on the calorific sidefor a fruit,

    一種滑順、如奶油般的口感,但也使它們位居高熱量的排行榜上–就水果來說

  • anyway.

    無論如何

  • They also contain high levels of potassium and folate nutrients, as well as vitamins

    它們也含有高單位的鉀與葉酸類營養素,以及維他命

  • C, E and K.

    C、E和K

  • And technically, avocados are berries, like grapes and blueberries.

    而學術上來說,酪梨屬莓果類,就像葡萄和藍莓

  • Rather than holding lots of little seeds, the avocado goes all-in on one big seedthat

    並非包覆著很多的籽,酪梨所有的果肉只包著一顆籽

  • massive ball at the core of each fruit.

    那個在每顆果實中心的厚實球狀物

  • And avocadoes, with their huge seeds, evolved alongside equally huge guts.

    有著巨大果核的酪梨同時也逐漸衍生出堅強的意志

  • Tens of thousands of years ago, during the Pleistocene Epoch, a menagerie of megafauna

    數萬年前,在更新世紀期間,巨型的野生動物

  • -- or, giant animals -- roamed the Americas.

    或者,巨獸,遍布美洲地區

  • While woolly mammoths chilled out in the North, ground sloths weighing three tons and armadillos

    當多毛的長毛象在北方休憩時,重達三噸的地懶和汽車般大的穿山甲

  • the size of cars lived in the warm equatorial forests.

    就住在溫暖的赤道雨林

  • And these giant sloths and armadillos ate a lot of avocados.

    而這些巨大的地懶和穿山甲吃掉大量的酪梨

  • Their digestive systems would break down the tough skin and absorb the high-energy pulp.

    它們的消化系統能夠分解外皮並吸收內部高能量的果肉

  • Then, the indigestible seed, which contains bitter toxins that kept the animals from chewing

    然後,難消化且含有苦毒素的果核可避免這些動物咀嚼吞食

  • it up, passed right out the other end.

    而直接將它們排出體外

  • The animals got a tasty meal, and the avocado trees got to scatter their offspring throughout

    動物們獲得美味佳餚,而酪梨樹開始成功地將它們的子嗣繁殖到整個

  • Mesoamerican forests.

    中美洲雨林裡

  • Plus, the seeds got some nice, warm fertilizer to give them a nutritious boost.

    另外,這些種子獲得一些優質、溫暖的肥料提升它們的養分

  • And with these megafauna around to eat the fruit, avocado trees could keep growing berries

    這些巨獸食用這水果的同時,酪梨樹持續繁殖漿果

  • with increasingly massive seeds.

    有著越來越大果核的

  • The bigger the seed, the more nutrients could be stored inside as a “starter kitfor

    果核越大,裡面就儲存越多生長的基本養分給

  • the baby tree.

    小樹

  • This is especially useful in dense, tropical forests where canopies of older trees block

    這對於大樹茂密如天篷般遮蔽了陽光的熱帶雨林

  • out much of the light from the saplings below.

    底下的樹苗來說是特別有用的

  • So instead of depending entirely on sunlight for energy, the avocado seedlings could supplement

    因此,並非全然依賴陽光以獲取能量,酪梨的幼苗能夠

  • photosynthesis with the nutrients in their seed to survive.

    藉由它們種籽內的養分補充光合作用來生存

  • This happy evolutionary match didn’t last, though. Eventually, the megafauna suffered

    儘管如此,這幸福的演化無法同生共死。最後,這些巨獸無一倖免

  • a mass extinction around ten to thirteen thousand years ago.

    大約在一萬到一萬三千年前一次大規模的滅絕

  • We don’t know exactly why, but scientists think the warming climate at the end of the

    我們無法知道確切原因,但科學家認為日漸暖化的氣候

  • last Ice Age was partly responsible.

    在冰河世紀末期在某種程度上要負起責任

  • Though it was also suspiciously close to the time humans began spreading across the Americas

    雖然仍未證實和人類開始遍布美洲地區的時代很相近

  • -- no doubt enjoying lots of giant-mammal meat along the way!

    無疑地,人類在這過程當中享用了許多大型哺乳類的肉

  • This meant avocados were in trouble.

    這代表酪梨有麻煩了

  • Without their large-gutted evolutionary partners, the trees stopped thriving -- their fruit

    沒有了它們大肚子的進化同伴,酪梨樹停止繁衍─它們的果實

  • fell to the ground, and the seeds mostly just became food for mold.

    掉到地上,而大部分的種籽成為黴菌的食物

  • But more hungry creatures were nearby!

    但更飢餓的生物就在不遠處

  • The new human arrivals loved the avocado’s flesh as much as the ground sloths did. They

    新來的人類和地懶同樣喜愛酪梨的果肉。他們

  • also had the tools to eat them, and the brains to figure out how to grow them.

    也擁有食用它們的工具,而且還有想出如何種植它們的大腦

  • Avocados were all set for domestication.

    酪梨們全被重新教化

  • The avocados we eat today are probably a little different from the ones that grew tens of

    我們現今所食用的酪梨可能和數萬年前所生長的有些不同

  • thousands of years ago -- for example, thanks to artificial selection, they probably have

    例如,多虧人工的挑選,它們可能

  • more pulp than their ancestors.

    比它們的祖先更有肉

  • But theyve kept their huge seeds, ready and waiting for the guts of long-dead beasts.

    不過它們已保住了巨大的種籽,正等待著飢腸轆轆的作古野獸們

  • Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow, brought to you by our patrons on Patreon.

    謝謝收看這集的科學節目,由阿甘創意贊助中心提供

  • If you want to help support this show, just go to patreon.com/scishow. And don’t forget

    如果你想要協助支持這個節目,請上網站patreon.com/scishow,並且別忘了

  • to go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe!

    上youtube.com/scishow訂閱!

Whether it’s sliced on top of a salad, tucked in a California sushi roll, or mashed as guacamole

不管是切片放在沙拉上,夾在加州壽司捲裡,或搗成酪梨沙拉醬

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