Take the PBS Digital Studios Annual Survey:
Pumpkins only survived thanks to an unlikely partnership they forged with another type of mammal. One that still found them to be toxic and disgusting at first, but could see the potential in the relationship. Us.
*****
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to
*****
Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
A.B. Heckert, Aaditya Mehta, Albert Folsom, Alex Hackman, Alli and Harry Meneses, AllPizzasArePersonal, anaïs wren, Annemiek Arkema, Betsy Radley, Brian Bertrand, Brian Clubb, Christopher Samuel, Collin Dutrow, Concavenator Amigo, Deanna Hernandez, Dennis Dawson, Douglas B, Duane Westhoff, Eric Edwards, Eric Franklin, Eric Younge, Gizmo, HannahCQ, Heathe Kyle Yeakley, Hillary Ryde-Collins, IAmHere, Irene Wood, Jason Rostoker, Jeff Graham, Jennifer Courtemanche, John Celio, John D Elias, John H. Austin, Jr., Karen Farrell, Kerry Conneely, Kevin Lacson, Lea Nisay, Lianne Lairmore, Lycoperdon perlatum, Mary Sammartino , Mary Tevington, Melodie Chen-Glasser, Nathan Paskett, Nick A, Nick Ryhajlo, Nomi Alchin, Nquiztor, Rachel Godwin, raus , Ruth Orr, Sara Lance, Sarah Ellis, Sarah Grunow-Mau, SKS PHD, Stephanie Schlea, Stephen A Muth III, Steve Hill, Steven Kern, Susan Freund, tara thara, TranquiliT, Walter Ray-Dulany, William Sunderland, Willie, Yu Mei, Zach L
If you’d like to support the channel, head over to and pledge for some cool rewards!
Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook –
Instagram –
Bluesky –
#Eons
References:
Wondering if we used AI to create graphics (or thumbnails!) for this video? Nope! Every Complexly video is lovingly, painstakingly human-made.
Ecosystems depend on the Lifeforms within them.
Stop destroying the Earth.
Pumpkins 4 eva!!
General normal pumpkin spice mix that you get at starbucks, or grocery stores exactly 0 PERCENT pumpkin. It's vanilla, cinnamon, and natural flavorings, which could be anything, roach shxt could be natural flavoring.
A “pumpkin of a story”…❤❤❤😊
As someone who tried my hand at gardening this year and tried growing 5 different cucurbits (lemon cucumber, golden zucchini, watermelon, sugar pumpkin and a surprise spaghetti squash decided to go nuts out of my compost bin) this was a fun video for me! Most of them didn't do too well for various reasons, but the lemon cucumber and spaghetti squash were fairly successful in addition to my tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos. I can't wait to try again next year! 🙂
I love pumpkins so much I could 100% see our ancestors being like no yeah we need to save these. Even just because they look pretty.
1:15 also cucumbers and melons.
Bow before us, pumpkins!
Apparently nothing should exist.
Mega fauna extinction? It's almost like North America was hit by an asteroid!
Avocados were also saved by humans.
"deter mamals to eat them "
Humans : And i take that as a challenge
Came for the the knowledge, stayed and like for the pun-pkin
0:06 Mastodon mentioned 🤘
thi2 is so interesting! id never considered how weird pumpkins or squashes r since im so used 2 them, but once u pointed it out it is kinda weird how they exist now.
Thanks!
Not me eating homemade pumpkin ice cream being blown away.
no ai in videos
I thought the title was “How Pumpkins Saved Humans” and I was like whattt
Cucurbits Like Me
That was super informative. Cheers!
Every wild topic you cover is even more amazing!
They wonder I'd ice age humans talked about climate change, and running out of megafauna to hunt.
PUNKIN! <3 try roasting a delicata and adding it to chicken soup!
Don´t forget that you can grow this plant family on active rotting compost or dung heaps. While other domesticated veggies are harmed by the aggressive chemical processes of decaying plant matter. Plus they are rather nutrient hungry plants. So it looks like they evolved to live in dung heaps, being able to tolerate decomposing dung as substrate and needing the nutirent rich environment it provides. Try that with a bell pepper or cabbage and you will fail. Plus if you store a zuccini for too long it will get bitter too..
Humans have caused more species to go extinct than they have saved.
8:43 I will. that was a small delight.
It's increasingly evident that Humans are the primary reason for Megafauna extinction as they could adapt and migrate to climate change despite struggling, and as the group in question still had a reduction in diversity we can't say we saved them when they would be thriving if there were no humans in the first place.
Also wondering if the disinterest of smaller mammals in eating these plants, along with the relative ease of growing them, made them desirable for humans to cultivate. It's a stable food source you don't have to protect constantly.
Wh… what..
So you are suggesting a human migration from north to south America after the extinction of the megafauna? How else are you explaining ghe cucurbit in south America? Because there were no vegetarian megafauna in the amazon
There are days when I try to imagine a world where PBS Eons has 300 mn subscribers. I remember a strip from C&H that said something like if more people saw the night sky, they would live differently; or something to that effect. I am extremely sure that the thought fits PBS Eons even better than the night sky. Love you all, folks. Missed you Kallie.
And how humans destroyed everything else
😂😂😂
Why did she say "Niche" wrong so many times.
who decided pumpkins shouldn't exist? how and why did they make that determination? who gave them the authority to even decide that they shouldnt exist? so why shouldn't they exist again? the video does nothing but explain how and why they do exist. so they should exist. and this video explains why. so why say they shouldn't exist when we know how and why they should?
@1:12 …and cucumbers, and watermelons….
Yeah I’d keep those seeds and those crops around.
Avocado and osage orange are two other fruits that were megafauna dispersed. You might like to do a video on them one day.
Pumpkins are cool and all but I'm really glad we have butternut squash. Those things are delicious.
So the way to save an endangered species is to make them the center of a popular holiday, at least I think that’s what I’ll learn from this
This whole video was new information. Thank you! A question I just thought of: are current wild species of cucurbits just feral offspring of domesticated lines? Is it possible all the wild cucurbits died out, and some partially domesticated lines became wild again?
the panda of plant world
There were mountain in Florida 30,000 years ago?
"…Found them toxic and disgusting at first, but could see the potential in the relationship." BASED