This post is a guest contribution by Colin Beale, a research
fellow at the University of York who studies ecology in
Tanzania. Colin writes about the living community of the
savannah, from butterflies to wildebeests, with co-blogger Ethan
Kinsey at Safari Ecology. If you have an idea for a post, and
you’d like to contribute to Nothing in Biology Makes Sense,
e-mail Jeremy to inquire. Spinescent. Now there’s a word! It
simply means having spines and one of the first things many
visitors to the African savannah notice is that everything is
covered in thorns. Or, in other words, Africa is spinescent.
It’s not a wise idea to brush past a bush when you’re walking,
and you certainly want to keep arms and legs inside a car
through narrow tracks. These are thorns that puncture heavy-duty
car tyres, let alone delicate skin. But why is the savanna so
much thornier than many of the places visitors come from? Or
even than other biomes within Africa, such as the forests? At
one level the answer is obvious—there are an awf