Cox was intrigued by the diet of those bats: They feasted
on cycad seeds.
The toxins in its leaves are used to defend more than just itself: the colourful leopard magpie moth (see picture) feeds
on cycads as a caterpillar in order to lace its body with macrozamin, making it a deeply unpalatable meal for any would - be predators.
Not exact matches
While most gymnosperms depend
on wind pollination,
cycads long ago evolved a relationship with beetles.
Cycads are the oldest seed - bearing plants
on Earth.
Great plant - eating dinosaurs roaming the earth, feeding
on lush ferns and palm - like
cycads and bennettitaleans... smaller but vicious carnivores stalking the great herbivores... oceans full of fish, squid, and coiled ammonites, plus great ichthyosaurs and long - necked plesiosaurs... vertebrates taking to the air, like the pterosaurs and the first birds.
Picnic at The Knoll and Witches Falls, tasting some of the award winning cheeses from Witches Chase, see
cycads at Zamia Grove or check out the landscape
on a lookout.
Unusual
cycads which are relics of plants from 150 million years ago grow
on the mountain, and the rare Albert's lyrebird, the world's largest skink and birdwing butterflies are some of the natives you could meet
on a Tamborine visit.
Cycad Rock Fishing Lodge is located
on the Jozini Dam in KwaZulu Natal and offers accommodation ideally suited for fishing enthusiasts.
And the scientists say that since 90 % of all tree species
on Earth are tropical trees, trees deserve to be considered along with
cycads, amphibians and corals as those groups with the highest proportion of threatened species.