The irreplaceable role of surviving megafauna in long-distance seed dispersal: Evidence from an experiment with Neotropical mammals

The downsizing of disperser assemblages by selective defaunation is a worldwide phenomenon thought to have important consequences in animal-dispersed plants. Numerous large-seeded Neotropical plants currently depend on the last megafaunal survivors, the large tapirs Tapirus spp., and medium-sized frugivores. The extent to which medium frugivores are functionally equivalent to tapirs remains unresolved. We combined feeding trials, seed dispersal kernel modeling based on seed retention times and animal movement simulation (Levy walks), and germination experiments in a large-seeded palm to assess the dispersal quality provided by the largest (tapirs) and two medium (foxes and howler monkeys) frugivore species in terms of dispersal distances and gut passage effects on germination. Tapirs retained the seeds in the gut for much longer (mean=221 hours) than howlers (43 h) and foxes (22 h). Median dispersal distance by tapirs (1252 m) was 14 and 40 times larger than that by foxes (88 m) and how..., Data on seed retention time was collected from feeding trials and seed recovery. Data on germination was obtained from germination experiments performed in a greenhouse., , # The irreplaceable role of surviving megafauna in long-distance seed dispersal: evidence from an experiment with Neotropical mammals

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51sv](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51sv)

Data on seed retention time in the gut of three frugivores (*Cerdocyon thous*, *Alouatta caraya* and *Tapirus terrestris*) and germination outcomes obtained by feeding trials and germination experiments, respectively (Associated Article: doi: 10.1111/oik.10488)

## Description of the data and file structure

Raw data is presented in an excel file.

Column headings and definition of variables:

1\. Seed.ID: Identification of each seed. Those named as 01.NA to 25.NA were only used in feeding trials for estimating seed retention times, but not in germination experiments.

The data frame is ordered by Seed.ID

2\. Treatment: Pre-sowing treatment applied to each seed. Intact: fruits retaining the pulp; Depulped: fruits which pulp was artificially removed; Depulped.soaked: depu...