The History Of Human Environmental Impact Has Been Illuminated By The New Data Platform

Ancient vestiges of this trace can be found in animal bones, shells, scales and antlers in archaeological sites.

These specimens altogether show the story of millennia of how human beings have hunted, domesticated and transported animals, modified landscapes and given response to environmental alterations like temperature change and sea level.

"If we are interested in really understanding the long history of human-animal interactions and environmental change, these records are key," he said. "They fill a gap between paleontological and modern records and reconstruct the baselines of biodiversity from the earliest periods of human history."

The zooarchaeological specimens, which can range from a carved bone pin to a shell fragment of a pile of discarded oysters, provide important information from both a biological and cultural point of view, LeFebvre said.

Robert Guralnick, co-principal investigator at ZooArchNet and associate curator of bioinformatics at the Museum of Florida, said the platform's goal is "not to be" another "data portal," but rather a cross-disciplinary connector, so ZooArchNet is more a bridge than anything else, but it does it formally to make the data work. "

This interdisciplinary connection will allow data-rich biodiversity research to be essential to understanding the widespread impact of humans on the environment, said Kitty Emery, principal investigator at ZooArchNet and associate curator of environmental archeology at the Florida Museum.

"We often think that our dramatic influence on the natural world is a modern phenomenon, but in reality, humans have shaped the environment for hundreds of thousands of years," he said. "Factoring that history into current biodiversity studies can provide old lessons about how and why people make certain decisions about the use of their environment Why do people hunt some animals for extinction and domesticate others? What motivates them? to move from sustainable environmental uses to others that "Dim the landscapes?"

As conservation groups prioritize species on the edge, zooarchaeological records can provide information about where the animals lived in the past, how their distribution has changed, what role people may have played in their movements, and how the animals have evolved. close relationships between people and animals domesticated over time.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190513112225.htm