2023-07-12 10:05:02
Earth has entered the “Anthropocene” Experts say chicken bones are evidence
(Agence France-Presse, Paris, 11th) When aliens or distant descendants of human beings study strata sediments to decipher the earth’s past in 500,000 years, they will find unusual evidence of subverting life and sudden upheaval 500,000 years ago, that is, chickens. bone.
That’s the conclusion scientists have come to following finding evidence that a rapid expansion of human appetite and activity has fundamentally altered natural systems and ushered the planet into a new geological age, the Anthropocene.
There are other obvious clues in the mud and rocks of Earth in the mid-20th century, including a surge of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases, as well as radioactive debris from nuclear tests, ubiquitous microplastics, and the spread of invasive species.
But the chicken bone may be one of the most sobering finds of all.
First, they are human inventions.
Geologist Carys Bennett said: “The modern broiler chicken is nothing compared to its ancestors or wild counterparts…the body size, bone shape, bone chemistry and genetics are all different.”
Bennett was the lead author of a 2017 study in the British journal Royal Society Open Science that provided evidence for the chicken as a “signature species” of the Anthropocene.
In other words, the existence of broiler chickens proves that humans have the ability to invade the natural world and interfere with its development.
Jan Zalasiewicz, emeritus professor of paleontology at the University of Leicester in the UK, told AFP: “(Animal) evolution usually takes millions of years, but here it took only a few decades to produce a new species. type of animal.”
The official Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), which he has chaired for more than a decade, today concluded that Crawford Lake near Toronto, Canada, is evidence that Earth was moved into the world by human activity regarding 70 years ago. A new geological chapter “Anthropocene” was opened.
The ubiquity of broiler chickens is another piece of evidence, with chicken bones left in abundance in nearly every inhabited part of the planet.
Bennett, a former researcher at the University of Leicester who is now an official for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said: “The chicken is a symbol of the change in our biosphere, which is now dominated by human consumption and resource use.”
“The large number of unique chicken bones discarded around the world will leave a clear signal in the future geological record,” she said.
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