Have you ever thought Animal Urine can play
such important role in Climate Change?A research from popsci science channel
has such a research:
What do giant, years-old urine deposits
have to do with climate change? Quite a bit, according to Brian Chase, a
paleoclimatologist from the University of Montpelier who has been studying
ancient animal urine since 2006. Chase is the principle investigator of the
HYRAX project, a study of how urine from a guinea-pig-like animal called the
rock hyrax can help us investigate climate change in Africa.
By looking at millennia-old layers of urine
in South Africa -- and the pollen, leaves, grasses and gas bubbles within --
researchers have found that Africa (and likely the rest of the world) had
periods of significant cooling after the end of the last Ice Age. Chase
discussed his team's findings at the annual meeting of the Association for the
Advancement of Science in Boston over the weekend.
Rock hyraxes can be found throughout Africa
and Asia, and have extremely dependable bathroom habits. They live in colonies
of up to 50 of their fellow rock hyraxes in the crevices of rocks. They live in
the same spot for generations, using the same communal latrines (middens) for
years.
After the end of the last Ice Age, great
swaths of melted Arctic ice entered the oceans, dramatically affecting northern
Europe. However, the effect on other regions -- especially dry regions like
southern and central Africa -- was unclear.
Through studying urine from up to 55,000
years ago, the project has shown that there was significant cooling in South
Africa as well. Chase intends for the project to create a precise timeline of
historical climate change events in order to better understand their cause.
(source: scientific research publishing )
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