3w ago

Carbon record reveals evidence of extensive human fire use 50,000 years ago

phys.org Carbon record reveals evidence of extensive human fire use 50,000 years ago

Fire is an ancient natural phenomenon that has shaped our planet for more than 400 million years. It alters habitats, affects the carbon cycle, and is closely linked to changes in climate and vegetation.

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/214233

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3 comments

The research article is closed access, curious what they do to rule out an increase in naturally occurring fires

That wasn't common knowledge?
- Widespread fire use by ancient hominids is estimated to have shown up between 400 thousand and 350 thousand years ago. I can’t access the whole article but from the abstract I suspect the research focuses on the increased scale of controlled fire use around 50,000 years ago and the fact that there was enough usage to impact the carbon cycle (consider how much lower a population they had than we do now, but their interactions with fire were already impacting the environment).