Archaeologists of the Future: Sorry About All the Livestock

Booming populations of cows, sheep, pigs and chickens inhabit the Earth — so their remains might rule our fossil record, too.

By Leslie Nemo
Jan 9, 2020 10:00 PMJan 9, 2020 10:10 PM
Livestock
Livestock will predominate in the fossil record our society leaves behind. What might archaeologists of the future think? (Credit: MR. WORAWUT SAEWONG/Shutterstock)

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Thousands of years in the future, when paleontologists unearth fossils from our current era, they're likely to notice something interesting about our society: There are far more livestock fossils than those from wild animals.

Cattle, pigs, chickens and sheep — along with humans — will likely dominate our mammalian fossil record, according to an analysis published in the journal Anthropocene. 

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