Posted on 04/30/2015 7:13:19 AM PDT by Utilizer
Nine hundred kilometers off the east coast of Madagascar lies the tiny island paradise of Mauritius. The waters are pristine, the beaches bright white, and the average temperature hovers between 22°C and 28°C (72°F to 82°F) year-round. But conditions there may not have always been so idyllic. A new study suggests that about 4000 years ago, a prolonged drought on the island left many of the native species, such as dodo birds and giant tortoises, dead in a soup of poisonous algae and their own feces.
The die-off happened in an area known as Mare aux Songes, which once held a shallow lake that was an important source of fresh water for nonmigratory animals. Today, it’s just a grassy swamp, but beneath the surface, fossils are so common and so well preserved that the area qualifies as what scientists call a Lagerstätte, which in German means “storage space.” "What I wanted to know was, how did this drought cause this graveyard?” says Erik de Boer, a paleoecologist at the University of Amsterdam. “How did so many animals die?”
To find out, de Boer and colleagues analyzed sediment cores taken from the area. The layers in a core contain markers that can help scientists reconstruct an ecosystem’s history, such as preserved pollens and microbes. About 4200 years ago, monsoon activity declined dramatically, causing a 50-year megadrought on the island. The cores revealed that during the same time period, the ancient lake became a muddy, salty swamp. “Annually, the lake would get some fresh water in, however this drinking water turned foul during the dry season,” de Boer says.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sciencemag.org ...
Ping!
Headline of the Day.
Not exactly sure why, but somehow that phrase reminds me of Michael Moore...
But, wait! I was always told the dodo died out because of evil white men from Europe ate them!
This should win the award for most bizarre headline in FR history.
Such is the evil that is “SUV” that they are able to cause droughts even before their invention.
That was later. Apparently, there was more than one opportunity to attempt the destruction of a species.
Those ancient SUVs (OxCarts) were extremely dangerous, you know. :)
You could come up with the names of at least five bands from this headline.
California Liberals face a remarkably similar fate.
Wait... wasn’t there some odd movie made fairly recently about traveling to Madagascar? Something involving penguins, I think... and perhaps a zebra and a lion... -no, definitely penguins. And a looney Lemur named King Julian!
*snort!* One can certainly hope! (Hope, hope, hope, hope, hope!)
“poisonous fecal cocktail”
I have my band name.
Could this apply to California?
It's happening again!
This time we have elected democrats and RINO republicans who have crapped on us for so long that we are up to our nostrils in crap and about to go under for the third time.
Great article.
Thanks for posting.
Ping...I think....LOL!
According to the Bible, Adam named all the animals. But according to Mark Twain, Eve named the dodo--because it looked like a dodo.
According to the Bible, Adam named all the animals. But according to Mark Twain, Eve named the dodo--because it looked like a dodo.
A Poo-tini. Shaken, not stirred.
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