Clues To Climate Of Historical Earth Lie In Ancient Human Feces
Bowel-based biomarkers indicate where ancient humans settled and started changing the environment. Researchers studying past climates have a handy new tool for uncovering ancient human settlements: Human feces. Apparently biomarkers only found in the intestines of higher mammals can persist in lake sediment, serving as an indicator that humans were living, eating and, yes, excreting in a given area. "Without even knowing it, early settlers were recording their history for us, and in the most unlikely of ways, in their poop," said study author Robert D'Anjou, a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Archaeologists already have a few methods for recording the presence of humans in a given area, like charcoal from fires and even pollen from domesticated plants. But these are not always clear indicators, and each has its limits, the UMass-Amherst researchers explain in a new paper. The variable presence of black carbon, soot and pollen could also indicate...