Everyone Was Wrong About Avocados - Including Us

If you’re a fan of avocados, you might have heard that they only exist thanks to prehistoric creatures called giant ground sloths. In fact, you’ve probably heard that from us. But as it turns out, the real story is way more complicated - so here's Hank to break down the avocado fact and fiction.

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)

**We looked at both paleontological and archaeological evidence for this video, and in a couple places we said one when we meant the other, sorry!**

Corrections:
2:41 This should be “the fossil record”
4:28 This should be "Paleontologists analyzed"
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[SciShow]

Hey! So many nice comments! The SciShow team did a kickass job on this and I love them so much and, legitimately, if you want to help us out you can do that! You can join the over 3000 people who are our patreon patrons who, together, make up roughly 30% of the budget of this channel.

Honestly, if I were you, here's what I'd do. I'd start at the $15 per month tier and I'd gobble up some of the OVER NINETY blooper reels we have, then I'd scale back to the $8 tier so I could get through the over 50 episodes of our patron-only podcast (including TONS of episodes of "after hours" a SciShow podcast where we talk about stuff that's a little too...y'know...for YouTube), and then, once I was done with those, I'd move to the $2 per month feed so I could make sure I was still supporting and get access to the Patron-only news feed.


I know $2 per month doesn't seem like a lot, but it's literally hundreds of times more than we make from advertising per person!

Thank you so much to all of our patrons who support what we do and make all of this free for everyone! Roughly 3000 people making a show that it loved by millions...the true MVPs.

Thanks for reading through all of this!

Hank

[queen-patches]

always love the "WE WERE WRONG BUT LETS LEARN WHY" videos!

[FirstnameLastname-lhfi]

The fact that SciShow created a new video, to correct something erroneous from an old video, rather than just unlist it, is truly honest and ought to be appreciated. Evidence-based reporting is really what science should be about!

[ViraIshnia]

I'm glad that SciShow does stuff like this. "Hey, turns out we were wrong. Here's the information we have now." I love it. I wish more media had this kind of integrity

[KenDBerryMD]

Excellent episode! Humans were selectively breeding plants thru agro-forestry long before we realize!

[enbyfairyyy]

We love fact checking and corrections 🙌👏

[jax]

The idea that a sloth is an omnivore... is kinda terrifying.

[NexuJin]

It's good to see Hank back in good health presenting SciShow!

[incognitosan]

Respect to any media source who realizes they told a mistruth and correct it publicly and with detail.

[snackplissken]

It's good to remember that, even in the age of science, humanity still largely tends to believe ad hoc explanations that make for a good story. Never forget that the core of the scientific method is trying to disprove your ideas and keeping those that survive inquiry, not shielding useful/popular ones from testing.

[SholupToklo]

The pit of avocado can be baked and ground like flour. Perhaps they were bred to have larger pits because they wanted the storable flour and pits more than the highly spoilable flesh surrounding the pit. The annoyance we find at the size of modern avocado pits may have been actually considered the ideal specimen for early agrarians.

[Dollightful]

Great update! The idea that Mayans planted "reborn people" trees is quite touching. What a nice cultural practice.

[kenadair]

Hank is THE BEST communicator on YouTube.... by far! His cadence, rhythm, emphasis, and flow are all SPOT ON for the most comprehensible educational videos! You should clone him.

[jamessosa]

Love the fact that you guys take the time (and have the humility) to accept having made a mistake. The pursuit of facts is awesome ... Could you look into other questionable studies, such as the one that led to sodium being shunned by most societies, or the whole "vitamin A" is great for eyesight? Thanks for your hard work!

[winkletter]

So what you're saying is it's more likely avocados were eaten *with* ground sloths, rather than *by* ground sloths.

[chel]

Well, I can't say it's not a little disappointing to learn that unimaginably large sloths didn't poop guacamole into existence. BUT I really, really appreciate that all the folks at SciSchow are so comfortable owning up to and correcting their mistakes. And I'm always happy to see ancient peoples getting the recognition they deserve for the ways they influenced our world.

[divadyrdnal]

My grandfather was a life long farmer, he thought the “bigger” seeds that a plant has the more likely it was able to “survive” to germinate and then maybe able to make more seeds, assuming the seeds were not “too” appetizing to animals. He had lots of large oaks seeds on his farm…

[paulinemegson]

Wild avocados are fairly small. They’re a main food item for the Quetzel bird. It’s not that big, and it swallows the fruit whole, digests the flesh, and regurgitates the seeds.

[joshuaworden]

And here I've spent all these years repeating this myth in a transparent attempt to appear smart and interesting. At least now I can start pedantically correcting others who repeat it in an even more transparent attempt to appear smart and interesting. Thanks SciShow!

[quintonneal]

I absolutely love when a channel here on YouTube is able to admit they were wrong. It gives so much more credibility to you guys. Great job 🤘