Rat nests contribute to fossil record in Wyoming cave nwaonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nwaonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Itâs time to praise pack rats.
The small rodents with big eyes are helping scientists decipher climate change deep inside a chilly Wyoming cave.
âPack rats compulsively gather all kinds of stuff in their nests â bones, shiny stuff, owl pellets, scat â and they bring it to their nest,â said Jenny McGuire, an assistant professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech University.
At Natural Trap Cave in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, pack rats have built large nests on ledges above and around the 85-foot deep hole in the ground. Over the years, some of those objects have fallen to the bottom of the cave and been buried by sediment, leaving clues to the past.
BRETT FRENCH
Itâs nearly 100 degrees on the bare limestone near the western base of Wyomingâs Bighorn Mountains, with shade scarce.
Yet inside nearby Natural Trap Cave, 85 feet below ground, it is a cool 40 degrees. Scientists working in the grotto are wearing long underwear, gloves and heavy coveralls to stay warm. Above ground, their assistants are sweating heavily in T-shirts and chugging water to avoid dehydration.
Such are the contradictions and complications of working in this remote and unusual location.
This is the sixth summer Julie Meachen, a Des Moines University associate professor of anatomy and vertebrate paleontologist, has organized a fossil excavation in the cave. It is an attraction to scientists because of its collection of fossils that have been dropped or fell into the cave over the past 30,000 years.
New Directors/New Films
Film at Lincoln Center holds the 50th anniversary edition of its film series online. It opens with Amalia Ulman’s
El Planeta and closes with Theo Anthony’s
All Light, Everywhere. The 2021 festival introduces 27 features and 11 shorts to audiences nationwide through MoMA and FLC virtual cinemas, and to New Yorkers at Film at Lincoln Center.
COST: $12 per rental, $275 for all-access passes; MORE INFO
College Pathways Reporter Jill Replogle hosts a Q&A session with higher education and employment experts to answer questions live about career and workforce changes.
(KPCC)
How To Start A New Career: A College Pathways Virtual Event
A Homegrown Education uphere.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from uphere.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.