Rainfall in a nutshell
P. spiralis trees on the Magela Creek floodplain near Madjedbebe, with an inset displaying the cephalium. Credit Florin et al.
Across the world, it’s what humans and other organisms have left behind that’s advanced our understanding of the Earth’s past. From pyramids to garbage piles, such leavings also preserve the opportunity to understand human history at the time these things were made or discarded.
When it comes to continuous Earth history, it doesn’t get much better than a 65,000-year-old rainfall record. That’s what archaeologists are generating from the ancient food scraps found at Australia’s earliest-known site of human occupation, in the Northern Territory.