Lake Diamond, New Zealand, ph. Credit: Dave McWethy / Montana State University
Posted on 10/15/2018 9:48:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
It is now possible to tell the story of mankind's presence and evolution on the planet by analyzing trends in soil and sediment accumulation of fecal sterols, chemical compounds which are crucial in human physiology. Scientists at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes of the National Research Council (CNR-IDPA) have identified and dated traces of sterols within the sediments of two New Zealand lakes, thus proving the presence of the Maori people who, starting from around 1280, colonized the two oceanic islands and cleared them of forests in just a few decades to make space for fields and pastures. The study has just been published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.
The analyses were carried out in the laboratories of Venice on cores of sediment taken from Lakes Diamond and Kirkpatrick, located on New Zealand's South Island. By analyzing the microparticles of coal and pollen, researchers had already found evidence of significant forest fires as well as of sudden changes to the New Zealand landscape during the fourteenth century, when the deforested areas made space available for grass and shrubs to grow quickly and in a manner that was without precedent. Archaeological and paleoecological evidence quite conclusively attribute the deforestation to the Maori people, but this new study provides definitive scientific proof of their arrival in the area and of the enormous impact that a group of so few individuals had on the native forest in a very short time, to the extent that it was irreversibly jeopardized. In addition, the research demonstrates the validity of the method tested by the Italian researchers for reconstructing the history of humankind's presence in a given region.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Lake Diamond, New Zealand, ph. Credit: Dave McWethy / Montana State University
Hope this isn’t just another shitty coprolite story. /sarc
If these guys can’t focus on the BS from Feinstein, they need to be put out to pasture.
Fecal Sterols?
Sounds like a power metal group from the 1980’s.
Didn’t they open the show for Whitesnake over in London?
So, what does Sitting Bull's crap tell us about her ancestry?
Heh, that reminds me, I have a book on coprology, somewhere, I can almost smell it.
“The study has just been published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.”
I’m glad the author told us Scientific Reports is a scientific journal.
—
Alternative headline “we found poo”.
They always get the scoop.
In 10,000 years, coprologists will study the massive fecal mounds of San Francisco. No bull.
It would be interesting to apply this methodology to places such as california
“They always get the scoop.”
Hee hee.
Not sure whether to groan or applaud!
But if they can't focus on the BS, and they're in the pasture, won't they wind up steppin' in it?
That's the gig where they had to change the name to Brownsnake.
When humans come to a new area it always changes the local ecology. The real question is the change good or bad or just a change. Today the North and South Islands of New Zealand are some of the most beautiful places on earth. I do not think humans hurt it unless one thinks anything humans do to change the environment is evil.
Case in point is the United Kingdom. Four thousand years ago it was forests with a few tribal areas. It was mostly untouched by the hand of man. Today it is a vibrant nation and the landscape has little resemblance to 4000 years ago. This is not bad, it is simply change.
Silent but deadly is the apropos response, I think. ;^)
I love watching the Time Team episodes on YouTube, they go to areas that look a lot like my own local landscape, and just as rural, yet I know that the population density is much higher there. OTOH, we don't have Roman roads across the terrain, and mosaics just under the grass. A little jealous.
Also, once in a while, those fecal sterols get flushed. :^)
Time Team Special 51 (2013) - Britain’s Stone Age Tsunami
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EPNZWBk7i8
Tsunamis in the Alps? A killer wave slammed medieval Geneva, a new study says... [500 A.D.]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2953567/posts
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