With each mouthful, it takes in microbes that live on the surface of the creosote; perhaps these have already evolved ways of breaking down the resin cocktail. Having eaten these microbes, the rat is itself better equipped. Later, it scurries away and defecates, leaving a small microbe-filled pellet behind – which another woodrat finds and eats. The ability spreads. Eventually, the rats unlocked the ability to eat what would soon become the most common plant in the Mojave.
Interesting
