Dung-eating mites throw light on Inca civilisation

The Times ^ | 03/26/07 | Mark Henderson,

[colorado tanker]

I find these stories fascinating, but "dung mites" just isn't a career path I can get into. :-))

[blam]

Historical Review: Megadrought And Megadeath In 16th Century Mexico (Hemorrhagic Fever)

"The epidemic of cocoliztli from1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1). In absolute and relative terms the 1545 epidemic was one of the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, approaching even the Black Death of bubonic plague, which killed approximately 25 million in western Europe from 1347 to 1351 or about 50% of the regional population.

The cocoliztli epidemic from 1576 to 1578 cocoliztli epidemic killed an additional 2 to 2.5 million people, or about 50% of the remaining native population. Newly introduced European and African diseases such as smallpox, measles, and typhus have long been the suspected cause of the population collapse in both 1545 and 1576 because both epidemics preferentially killed native people. But careful reanalysis of the 1545 and 1576 epidemics now indicates that they were probably hemorrhagic fevers, likely caused by an indigenous virus and carried by a rodent host.

[Eaker]

Did the Inca's diseases kill off the Spanish too?

[blam]

"Yes they were (evil white men) (Spanish), armed with the latest of (military technology), who also brought(European diseases)with them and caused the single most devastating loss of life in the Americas. Killing off indigenous people (Inca), and livestock, (llama)as well. I doubt those civil wars had much to do with the deaths of tens of millions. "

Ahem, 'White' people may have been the first to the Americas.

Kuelap - The Machu Picchu Of Northern Peru (Chachapoyas - White, blonde haired people)

[blam]

Vintage Skulls

"The oldest human remains found in the Americas were recently "discovered" in the storeroom of Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. Found in central Mexico in 1959, the five skulls were radiocarbon dated by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Mexico and found to be 13,000 years old. They pre-date the Clovis culture by a couple thousand years, adding to the growing evidence against the Clovis-first model for the first peopling of the Americas."

Of additional significance is the shape of the skulls, which are described as long and narrow, very unlike those of modern Native Americans.

[Larry Lucido]

Dung-eating mites throw light on Inca civilisation

Well, where the hell were these mites when I was doing my paper on Inca civilization? I could have used some help!

[TexasRepublic]

..as temperatures rose during the 11th century, then declined..

Caused by pre-Incan SUV's no doubt.

[CholeraJoe]

moved higher into the Andes as temperatures rose during the 11th century, then declined,

Gives yet another point of reference to the rising temperature in the Northern Hemisphere leading to the colonization of Greenland and later North America, occuring about the same time.

Unless, of course, you want to blame it on Incan SUVs, CFC's from the Incan's refrigerators, and llama farts.

[Old Professer]

"Even further back in history, the mite records also show how two earlier civilisations, the Whari and the Tiwanaku, moved higher into the Andes as temperatures rose during the 11th century, then declined, partly because of prolonged drought."

Drought raises temperatures? I thought it was the other way around.

Are we now to suspect that global warming may be caused by dung mites?

[Hegemony Cricket]

Dung-eating mites - always have a certain grin on their tiny little faces...

[Hegemony Cricket]

Not to be confused with dust mites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSjCLd50L5I

[quark]

Don't forget the dung-eating beetles:

[SunkenCiv]

[llama] "pull my hoof".