Scientists analyse 7,000-year-old fossilized coral reef

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Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute discovered a massive, 7,000-year-old fossilized coral reef near the institute’s Bocas del Toro Research Station in Panama. Spanning about 50 hectares, it rewards paleontologists with an unusual glimpse of a “pristine” reef that formed before humans arrived.

“All modern reefs in the Caribbean have been impacted in some way by humans,” said STRI staff scientist Aaron O’Dea. “We wanted to quantify that impact by comparing reefs that formed before and after human settlement.”

Archaeological evidence from Bocas del Toro indicates that settlers did not make extensive use of marine resources until around 2,000 years ago. So, the fossilized reef predates human impact by a few thousand years. After comparing fossilized corals with corals from nearby reefs, the team was surprised to find a modern reef that closely resembled the pre-settlement reef.

“This finding begs the question of what’s so special about this reef,” O’Dea said. The team evaluated current environmental factors such as water quality, hypoxia, temperature, aspect and shape, but none of those explained why this reef is more like the pre-human impact reef. 

Source: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/02/fossils-help-identify-a-lone-bright-spot-in-a-similar-state-to-coral-reefs-before-human-impact/125896

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Human impact is less than purported by green famatics...

Preserving the earth is still a good idea tho..