Jan 19
The glacial mountains
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The glacial mountains
The Ice Age began 2.58 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago. During this period, the world experienced several glacial and interglac
The Ice Age began 2.58 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago.
[…] The study revealed that new archaeological data for the Philippines' Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which presented the oldest fossil remains representing the “nine vertebrate species” found in Pilanduk that include the iconic tiger, "Panthera tigris"—the largest living cat species.
“Pilanduk shows evidence for specialized deer hunting and freshwater mollusc consumption during the LGM,” the research said.
Their research also confirmed the site’s LGM antiquity at 20,000 to 25,000 years ago.
UP said the Pilanduk Cave also provides the only "substantive subsistence record" known for the LGM for the entire Philippine archipelago.
Moreover, these results added to the evidence for the shifting foraging behaviors of modern humans occupying variable tropical environments across Island Southeast Asia.
Bone of a tiger's foot unearthed during the excavation (Photo courtesy of Janine Ochoa / University of the Philippines Diliman Information Office)
#aFactADay2026
#1829: the last glacial maximum, when much of the world was frozen and thus lots of the water was frozen in ice sheets, was about 22 thousand years ago. the ice extended from the top of Greenland to what is now the continental US - the Great Lakes were thought to be formed by the retreat of the Wisconsin glacier about 10-12kyBP. the sheet covering North America in up to 3.2km of ice is called the Laurentide ice sheet, which was so massive (its area is measured in MILLIONS of square miles) that it pretty much dictated the global climate.
since the last glacial maximum, the global sea level has risen drastically. i've seen quite different numbers for exactly how much, but roughly 110-130m in that 22 thousand years. even in the last 5ky there's been a reasonably large rise of about 5m. this has wildly changed the coastline - i was aware of Doggerland, the big bit of land between what's now England, France and Germany that disappeared about 10-8kyBP, but now i'm reading about it in the context of the Floridan peninsula, which has more than halved in area since the last glacial maximum.
Leaving Africa
Source: https://phys.org/news/2023-09-pollen-analysis-dispersal-modern-humans.html
While we know that humans developed in Africa, we don't know why they left Africa, whether it was a warming spell or a cold snap that propelled Homo sapiens to leave the area they developed in and were best suited for. This has been a debate amongst anthropologists for decades, with a new study on the pollen found around early H sapiens settlements shedding some light onto the mystery.
Fossilized pollen allows researchers to recreate the climate of the time by revealing what type of plants grew at the time. Since plants have climates they grow best in, the type and amount of pollen reveals a lot about the local climate that can't be inferred from other methods, like ice cores, which reveal a lot about the general climate.
The researchers focused their efforts around Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and has a long history of human habitation, going back at least 24,000 years. The researchers focused on layers from about 50,000 to 40,000 year ago, when modern humans left Africa, to figure out what the conditions were like near the edge of the glaciers that dominated the northern hemisphere during the Last Glacial Maximum.
The researchers found that H sapiens left Africa during the warmest part of the Last Glacial Maximum. The pollen around the lake showed that the lake was surrounded by coniferous forests and grasslands, which allowed hunting and foraging by humans, allowing them to travel and live in the area comfortably. This time frame also aligns with a burst in creativity in human crafts, such as the development of sewing needles with eyes, the refinement of stone blades, and worked bone, antler, and ivory. This was also when humans began painting in caves and carving the so-called Venus figurines.
A well preserved bone was found at a place called Ust'-Ishim, which is west of Lake Baikal, which dates to 45,000 years ago and is a genetically modern human, which supports the timing this study. Because of the nature of its discover, being found through erosion caused by a river, there isn't a lot of context to the bone, so it's unknown if the owner of the bone was solitary or if it was part of a community that extended to other communities found in the Baikal region.
we used to be underwater #coastalliving #iceage
“Its A Cold, Cold, Cold, Cold World”: Story set in the Americas during the last Glacial Maximum.
A tribe of humans experiencing the last of the Missoula glacial floods. There are four plots: 1) a grandmother and her eldest and youngest grandchildren struggling to keep up w/ the tribe who’ve chosen to head to higher ground on the mountains w/ the increase in water flow downriver of the ice dam, meanwhile, 2) the father (son of grandmother) and mother searching for their 2nd son before the dam ruptures. 3) The young members of the tribe out on their first hunt, w/ the aforementioned son out on a solo hunt. Is completely unaware of the situation and is heading right in the direction of the ice dam following a deer he had failed to kill several times. His story is overseen by a raven watching from afar seemingly laughing at his failures. 4) At this time, we initially follow three mammoths, (a mother and her sister, and daughter), who've been separated from their herd after a hunt from the young human hunters and forced to go a longer path to their destination south. Eventually the mother succumbs to death and her calf is taken under the care of her aunt. All these events transpiring simultaneously and building up to the ice dam’s eventual rupture. All the while these events are witnessed by an eagle that flies overhead.
Artist’s Notes: Title is a nod to the film, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. This story loosely adapting my people’s story of the flood and creation of the islands we currently live on.
Fossil footprints show humans in North America more than 21,000 years ago via nbcnews - https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/fossil-footprints-show-humans-north-america-21000-years-ago-rcna2169
Fossil footprints show humans in North America more than 21,000 years ago, the earliest firm evidence for humans in the Americas and show pe
Yoooooooooooooo fuck you Clovis-first snobs!!! :D
legit this is evidence of the presence of humans in the americas before the last glacial maximum.
i'm SO EXCITED, how do i put 'good mood due to the opposite of academic rage' in my mood tracker?
This is a drone video of the landslide that occurred in Alta, Norway earlier this week. No one was hurt, and even a dog was rescued after it was able to swim back to shore.
This type of slide is thought to occur on a "Quick Clay" layer, produced as the glaciers departed at the end of the last glaciation. 15,000 years ago - Norway and Scandinavia were covered by a gigantic ice cap. The weight of this ice cap actually pressed down the Earth's crust - like using your hand to push a toy down to the bottom of the bathtub.
When the glaciers melted, the ocean returned, flooding the land you see above the water today. Those ocean waters deposited thin layers of clay and salt on the newly-submerged landscape. But, as the weight of the glaciers was also removed, the land began popping up, bringing this thin layer of ocean sediments above the surface. For the last 10,000 years, sediment from the land buried this thin clay layer, and now houses are constructed on some parts of that landscape. Today, it sometimes only takes a small event, like a rainstorm that dissolves some of the salt, to make that clay layer weak enough to trigger a slide.
-JBB