Latest news with #Feder
Scientific American
13-06-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
These Hamster Dads Are a Cut above the Rest
This Father's Day, we're celebrating the unusually involved Djungarian hamsters dads By edited by Fonda Mwangi Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American 's Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. Parental care is costly. It uses up precious time, energy and resources—and in the animal world, it's usually the moms who bear the brunt of it. For most mammals, the concept of fatherhood begins and ends at conception. So what drives a father to defy evolutionary norms? Today's episode celebrates the superparent skills of a surprising—and adorable—little critter. Our guide for this Father's Day Friday Fascination is Elah Feder, a freelance audio producer, editor and journalist. Here's Elah now. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Elah Feder: In mammals, good dads are the exception. Male leopards, bears, orcas—they have a habit of toddling off after mating and leaving the mothers to raise the kids. So when you come across a mammal species with active, doting dads—dads who actually matter for their kids' survival—you pay attention. And one of the most extreme cases of good fatherhood can be found in a dwarf hamster that lives in the cold, dry semideserts of Russia, China and Mongolia: Phodopus campbelli, aka the Djungarian hamster. Campbelli males and females raise their kids in burrows underground. And when the first litter of pups arrive, the dads get to work right away. Katherine Wynne-Edwards: They will be very close by during the birth. Feder: Katherine Wynne-Edwards is a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Calgary [in Alberta]. It took her a while to figure out exactly what these male hamsters were doing. But then she saw it: they were acting as midwives, physically delivering the babies. Wynne-Edwards: Actually getting film of a male using his four paws to pull the head of a neonate out of the birth canal was extraordinary. Feder: After the pups are born, the dad carries each one to a warm nest inside the burrow. Wynne-Edwards: And then he would spin it around, clean off its membranes ... and orient the face up and lick the nostrils and the mouth. Some of these pups are born pretty blue. And once the male has licked those nostrils, there's a flush of red, and we're back to what we call pinkies, little rodent babies. Feder: Katherine first encountered these hamsters in the early 1980s, back when she was a grad student. Wynne-Edwards: People really didn't know about them at all. They are native to the steppes of central Asia, which is, even by Canadian standards, an underpopulated part of the Earth. And so we really knew very little about them. Feder: So Katherine's adviser was like, 'Here, figure out everything you can about this species.' And what was immediately obvious was that they were stacked with adaptations for cold weather—adaptations that happened to make them extra cute. Wynne-Edwards: Let's be honest: they look like a windup toy. They're fluffy; they're really remarkably spherical; their tail is very short and barely protrudes from the rest of their fur. Their ears are relatively short and actually do even have hair on them, which many rodents don't, um, and can be folded down. Feder: All great ways to conserve heat in a place where temperatures can drop as low as –50 degrees Celsius [–58 degrees Fahrenheit]. But what made these hamsters really interesting was this biparental care—with both mother and father involved in raising the kids. Make no mistake—the mother is still doing the heavy lifting. She nurses the pups, which means giving up precious water and nutrients, but the father will take turns sitting on the pups, keeping them warm, returning them to the nest if they wander off. And when the mother weans them, the father is the one who sticks around for a few more days and feeds them seeds from his cheek pouches so they don't go wandering off from the burrow before they're ready. And the question is: Why? Most mammals—in fact, most animals in general—grow up just fine without dads. Nick Royle: Most care across different taxa is female-only care. Feder: Nick Royle is an associate professor of behavioral and evolutionary ecology at the University of Exeter in England. He says if we look beyond mammals, lots of animals don't have maternal care either. When the kids hatch, they're on their own. Royle: Parental care in general is quite rare. So only 3 percent of reptile families have parental care, for example. It's rare in invertebrates, but it is quite well developed, obviously, in things like ants and termites and beetles. Feder: From an evolutionary perspective, if you can make some offspring, and they thrive with no help from you, that's a win. You can keep your food for yourself, go off and reproduce again and spread more of your genes. On the other hand, if your offspring flounder and die without your support, your genes are not going to get very far. Royle: You typically get parental care evolving when the benefits outweigh those costs. Feder: In mammals, at least those who haven't invented baby formula, maternal care is essential. Newborns depend on milk for survival, so the costs of not nursing your offspring are very high. But for male mammals, the evolutionary calculation is a bit different. Having more mates means potentially having a lot more offspring. So although sticking around to feed your existing offspring or defend them from predators or teach them cool life skills, even though all of that might boost survival rates, males have to weigh that against lost mating opportunities. None of this is conscious, of course. These are just the evolutionary pressures shaping their behavior. In any case, as a result, in mammals ... Royle: There's various estimates, but up to 10 percent of mammalian species have males caring with females, and then most of the rest of the care is female-only care. Feder: So what's going on with these mammal species where dads are involved? When does active fatherhood become a winning evolutionary strategy? So let's take a look at these hamsters. First, we know that in these hamsters, Phodopus campbelli, pups do not fare well without their dads. In one study, Katherine found that mated pairs successfully raised 95 percent of their pups to adulthood. But when the male was removed, only half made it. And it wasn't about how much food they were getting. These studies were done in the lab, where plenty of food was provided. And it actually wasn't males' midwifery work either, helpful as that is— because, at least in the lab, females successfully gave birth even if they were alone. Instead the researchers found that the need for a male had a lot to do with temperature. Wynne-Edwards: The worst thing that can happen to a [ P. ] campbelli mum is that she's in a warm environment. Feder: These hamsters, being so well adapted to conserve heat, they're prone to overheat, especially if they're sitting day after day in a nest, nursing pups that are getting better and better at thermoregulating each day. Wynne-Edwards: The pups become more of a problem later because they're too hot. Feder: When solitary females were held at a comfortable 18 degrees Celsius, they were actually pretty successful. More than 90 percent of their pups survived without a dad present. But if it got even a few degrees hotter, suddenly male presence mattered a whole lot for pup survival and for growth. So why would that be? Well, Katherine found that males help the females regulate their own temperature. Females go for walks away from the nest to cool off. The hotter the temperature in the lab, the longer these cool-down walks are. For the mom, this is essential, but it's not great for the pups. They start to lose heat—and water, too— unless there's someone else there to sit on them and keep things nice and warm and humid, aka another parent. So ultimately, it seems like these dads are a product of evolving in a superharsh environment. In a place this cold, it's just hard for a single parent to retain heat and raise their kids without overheating. In fact, it's often the case that harsh environments tip the scales in favor of active fathers. Harsh environments can just mean that offspring need more help to grow up, selecting for more parental care in general. And we can actually see this play out in this hamster's very close relative, Phodopus sungorus, also known as the Siberian hamster. [ P.] sungorus lives right across a mountain range from our hamsters, [ P.] campbelli. Where they live, it's also a harsh environment but not quite as harsh. And in[ P.] sungorus the fathers are often—but not always—involved in the care of offspring. And when they are, they're not quite as attentive as [ P.] campbelli dads. Katherine has conducted experiments in the lab, where she'll remove a hamster pup from a nest and plop it in a far corner of its cage. Wynne-Edwards: The male—if the female is not there—the male will leave the nest, go to the pup, pick it up, bring it back to the nest and just sit down on it again. Feder: And in our star hamsters, [ P.] campbelli, the male will rush over right away, wasting no time. But in their close relative, [ P.] sungorus, the males respond, too, but they take more than twice as long to go over to the pup. And then, more than half the time, they don't even pick it up. So a harsh environment is one explanation for why [ P.] campbelli hamster dads are so devoted. But when it comes to fatherhood, Nick says there are lots of other factors that come into play. Confidence in paternity, for example—so if the female mates with multiple males that can make it harder to determine who the dad is. And that will affect whether the father helps out. In [ P.] campbelli hamsters, that's not much of an issue. In lab experiments, Katherine found that a female won't get pregnant if she mates with more than one male. Another potential factor favoring active dads is females preferentially mating with males who seem like they would be good at fatherhood. Here's Nick again. Royle: There's definitely kind of a selection for good quality parents effectively, and there's some evidence for that, particularly in birds, where biparental care is strongest, so you can get females kind of making choices of males based on their likely parental care. Feder: And so, even though active fatherhood is not the norm in most animals, there are actually lots of species where evolution favors it—[such as] seahorses, famously. Males carry their broods around in special pouches. They even have placentas in there! In some fish species, the male carries the fertilized eggs in his mouth, forgoing food, until they've hatched and grown and are ready to swim around independently. Even some beetles care for their young. Nick studies a species where males and females regurgitate meat for their little larvae kids. And of course, we have humans—fatherhood definitely varies from dad to dad and culturally, too. But there are a lot of devoted, caring human dads. There are dads who feed their kids, change their diapers, teach them how to drive, pay for college tuition—all activities I have no doubt [ P. ] campbelli dads would jump at the chance to do, given access to cars, currency and higher education. So if you happen to be in the arid semi-desert of Inner Mongolia one summer—summer being this hamster's breeding season—just know that you're in proximity to parental greatness. All around you in burrows just below ground are tiny hamster dads, working their fluffy butts off to operate birthing centers—they're delivering babies, keeping them warm, and just generally doing their very best to help their kids survive the harsh, dry land on which you walk. Feltman: That's all for today's Friday Fascination. We'll be back bright and early on Monday with our usual weekly news roundup. Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was reported and co-hosted by Elah Feder and edited by Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses, Emily Makowski and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
14 archeological sites in the US that changed what we know about the earliest Americans
Archaeological sites older than the Roman Empire and the pyramids can be found in many US states. These sites shed light on the first humans who arrived in North America. Some are closed to the public, but tourists can visit several of them to glimpse the distant past. The US is less than 250 years old, but some of its most important archaeological sites are older than the Viking seafarers, the Roman Empire, and the pyramids. Many help tell the story of how the first humans came to North America. It's still a mystery exactly how and when people arrived, though it's widely believed they crossed the Bering Strait at least 15,000 years ago. "As we get further back in time, as we get populations that are smaller and smaller, finding these places and interpreting them becomes increasingly difficult," archaeologist Kenneth Feder told Business Insider. He's the author of "Ancient America: Fifty Archaeological Sites to See for Yourself." Some sites, like White Sands and Cooper's Ferry, have skeptics about the accuracy of their age. Still, they contribute to our understanding of some of the earliest Americans. Others are more recent and highlight the different cultures that were spreading around the country, with complex buildings and illuminating pictographs. Many of these places are open to the public, so you can see the US' ancient history for yourself. White Sands National Park, New Mexico Prehistoric camels, mammoths, and giant sloths once roamed what's now New Mexico, when it was greener and damper. As the climate warmed around 11,000 years ago, the water of Lake Otero receded, revealing footprints of humans who lived among these extinct animals. Some even seemed to be following a sloth, offering a rare glimpse into ancient hunters' behavior. Recent research puts some of these fossilized footprints at between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. If the dates are accurate, the prints would predate other archaeological sites in the US, raising intriguing questions about who these people were and how they arrived in the Southwestern state. "Where are they coming from?" Feder said. "They're not parachute dropping in New Mexico. They must have come from somewhere else, which means there are even older sites." Archaeologists simply haven't found them yet. While visitors can soak in the sight of the eponymous white sands, the footprints are currently off-limits. Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania In the 1970s, archaeologist James M. Adovasio sparked a controversy when he and his colleagues suggested stone tools and other artifacts found in southwestern Pennsylvania belonged to humans who had lived in the area 16,000 years ago. For decades, scientists had been finding evidence of human habitation that all seemed to be around 12,000 to 13,000 years old, belonging to the Clovis culture. They were long believed to have been the first to cross the Bering land bridge. Humans who arrived in North America before this group are often referred to as pre-Clovis. At the time, skeptics said that the radiocarbon dating evidence was flawed, AP News reported in 2016. In the years since, more sites that appear older than 13,000 years have been found across the US. Feder said Adovasio meticulously excavated the site, but there's still no clear consensus about the age of the oldest artifacts. Still, he said, "that site is absolutely a major, important, significant site." It helped archaeologists realize humans started arriving on the continent before the Clovis people. The dig itself is on display at the Heinz History Center, allowing visitors to see an excavation in person. Cooper's Ferry, Idaho One site that's added intriguing evidence to the pre-Clovis theory is located in western Idaho. Humans living there left stone tools and charred bones in a hearth between 14,000 and 16,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. Other researchers put the dates closer to 11,500 years ago. These stemmed tools are different from the Clovis fluted projectiles, researchers wrote in a 2019 Science Advances paper. Some scientists think humans may have been traveling along the West Coast at this time, when huge ice sheets covered Alaska and Canada. "People using boats, using canoes could hop along that coast and end up in North America long before those glacial ice bodies decoupled," Feder said. Cooper's Ferry is located on traditional Nez Perce land, which the Bureau of Land Management holds in public ownership. Page-Ladson, Florida In the early 1980s, former Navy SEAL Buddy Page alerted paleontologists and archaeologists to a sinkhole nicknamed "Booger Hole" in the Aucilla River. There, the researchers found mammoth and mastodon bones and stone tools. They also discovered a mastodon tusk with what appeared to be cut marks believed to be made by a tool. Other scientists have returned to the site more recently, bringing up more bones and tools. They used radiocarbon dating, which established the site as pre-Clovis. "The stone tools and faunal remains at the site show that at 14,550 years ago, people knew how to find game, fresh water and material for making tools," Michael Waters, one of the researchers, said in a statement in 2016. "These people were well-adapted to this environment." Since the site is both underwater and on private property, it's not open to visitors. Paisley Caves, Oregon Scientists study coprolites, or fossilized poop, to learn about the diets of long-dead animals. Mineralized waste can also reveal much more. In 2020, archaeologist Dennis Jenkins published a paper on coprolites from an Oregon cave that were over 14,000 years old. Radiocarbon dating gave the trace fossils' age, and genetic tests suggested they belonged to humans. Further analysis of coprolites added additional evidence that a group had been on the West Coast 1,000 years before the Clovis people arrived. Located in southcentral Oregon, the caves appear to be a piece of the puzzle indicating how humans spread throughout the continent thousands of years ago. The federal Bureau of Land Management owns the land where the caves are found, and they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Swan Point, Alaska Whenever people arrived in the Americas, they crossed from Siberia into Beringia, an area of land and sea between Russia and Canada and Alaska. Now it's covered in water, but there was once a land bridge connecting them. The site in Alaska with the oldest evidence of human habitation is Swan Point, in the state's eastern-central region. In addition to tools and hearths dating back 14,000 years, mammoth bones have been found there. Researchers think this area was a kind of seasonal hunting camp. As mammoths returned during certain times of the years, humans would track them and kill them, providing plentiful food for the hunter-gatherers. While Alaska may have a wealth of archaeological evidence of early Americans, it's also a difficult place to excavate. "Your digging season is very narrow, and it's expensive," Feder said. Some require a helicopter to reach, for example. Blackwater Draw, New Mexico In 1929, 19-year-old James Ridgley Whiteman found mammoth bones along with fluted projectile points near Clovis, New Mexico. The Clovis people who made these tools were named for this site. Researchers studying the site began to realize the artifacts found at the site belonged to different cultures. Clovis points are typically larger than Folsom flutes, which were first found at another archaeological site in New Mexico. For decades after Whiteman's discovery, experts thought the Clovis people were the first to cross the Bering land bridge from Asia around 13,000 years ago. Estimates for humans' arrival is now thought to be at least 15,000 years ago. Eastern New Mexico University's Blackwater Draw Museum grants access to the archaeological site between April and October. Upper Sun River, Alaska One reason the dates of human occupation in North America is so contentious is that very few ancient remains have been found. Among the oldest is a child from Upward Sun River, or Xaasaa Na', in Central Alaska. Archaeologists found the bones of the child in 2013. Local indigenous groups refer to her as Xach'itee'aanenh t'eede gay, or Sunrise Girl-Child. Genetic testing revealed the 11,300-year-old infant belonged to a previously unknown Native American population, the Ancient Beringians. Based on the child's genetic information, researchers learned that she was related to modern Native Americans but not directly. Their common ancestors started becoming genetically isolated 25,000 years ago before dividing into two groups after a few thousand years: the Ancient Berignians and the ancestors of modern Native Americans. According to this research, it's possible humans reached Alaska roughly 20,000 years ago. Poverty Point National Monument, Louisiana Stretching over 80 feet long and 5 feet tall, the rows of curved mounds of Poverty Point are a marvel when viewed from above. Over 3,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers constructed them out of tons of soil. Scientists aren't sure exactly why people built them, whether they were ceremonial or a display of status. The artifacts various groups left behind indicate the site was used off and on for hundreds of years and was a meeting point for trading. People brought tools and rocks from as far as 800 miles away. Remains of deer, fish, frogs, alligators, nuts, grapes, and other food have given archaeologists insights into their diets and daily lives. You can see the World Heritage Site for yourself year-round. Horseshoe Canyon, Utah Though remote, the multicolored walls of Horseshoe Canyon have long attracted visitors. Some of its artifacts date back to between 9,000 and 7,000 BCE, but its pictographs are more recent. Some tests date certain sections to around 2,000 to 900 years ago. The four galleries contain life-sized images of anthropomorphic figures and animals in what's known as the Barrier Canyon style. Much of this art is found in Utah, produced by the Desert Archaic culture. The pictographs may have spiritual and practical significance but also help capture a time when groups were meeting and mixing, according to the Natural History Museum of Utah. It's a difficult trek to get to the pictographs (and the NPS warns it can be dangerously hot in summer) but are amazing to view in person, Feder said. "These are creative geniuses," he said of the artists. Canyon de Chelly, Arizona Situated in the Navajo Nation, Canyon de Chelly has gorgeous desert views and thousands of years of human history. Centuries ago, Ancestral Pueblo and Hopi groups planted crops, created pictographs, and built cliff dwellings. Over 900 years ago, Puebloan people constructed the White House, named for the hue of its clay. Its upper floors sit on a sandstone cliff, with a sheer drop outside the windows. Navajo people, also known as Diné, still live in Canyon de Chelly. Diné journalist Alastair Lee Bitsóí recently wrote about visiting some of the sacred and taboo areas. They include Tsé Yaa Kin, where archaeologists found human remains. In the 1860s, the US government forced 8,000 Navajo to relocate to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. The deadly journey is known as the "Long Walk." Eventually, they were able to return, though their homes and crops were destroyed. A hike to the White House is the only one open to the public without a Navajo guide or NPS ranger. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado In the early 1900s, two women formed the Colorado Cliff Dwelling Association, hoping to preserve the ruins in the state's southwestern region. A few years later, President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill designating Mesa Verde as the first national park meant to "preserve the works of man." Mesa Verde National Park holds hundreds of dwellings, including the sprawling Cliff Palace. It has over 100 rooms and nearly two dozen kivas, or ceremonial spaces. Using dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, archaeologists learned when Ancestral Pueblo people built some of these structures and that they migrated out of the area by the 1300s. Feder said it's his favorite archaeological site he's visited. "You don't want to leave because you can't believe it's real," he said. Tourists can view many of these dwellings from the road, but some are also accessible after a bit of a hike. Some require extra tickets and can get crowded, Feder said. Cahokia, Illinois Cahokia has been called one of North America's first cities. Not far from present-day St. Louis, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people lived in dense settlements roughly 1,000 years ago. Important buildings sat atop large mounds, which the Mississippians built by hand, The Guardian reported. At the time, it was thriving with hunters, farmers, and artisans. "It's an agricultural civilization," Feder said. "It's a place where raw materials from a thousand miles away are coming in." Researchers have also found mass graves, potentially from human sacrifices. The inhabitants built circles of posts, which one archaeologist later referred to as "woodhenges," as a kind of calendar. At the solstices, the sun would rise or set aligned with different mounds. After a few hundred years, Cahokia's population declined and disappeared by 1350. Its largest mound remains, and some aspects have been reconstructed. While Cahokia is typically open to the public, parts are currently closed for renovations. Montezuma Castle, Arizona Perched on a limestone cliff in Camp Verde, Arizona, this site is an apartment, not a castle, and is unrelated to the Aztec ruler Montezuma. The Sinagua people engineered the five-story, 20-room building around 1100. It curves to follow the natural line of the cliff, which would have been more difficult than simply making a straight building, Feder said. "These people were architects," he said. "They had a sense of beauty." The inhabitants were also practical, figuring out irrigation systems and construction techniques, like thick walls and shady spots, to help them survive the hot, dry climate. Feder said the dwelling is fairly accessible, with a short walk along a trail to view it, though visitors can't go inside the building itself. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
12-05-2025
- Science
- Business Insider
14 archeological sites in the US that changed what we know about the earliest Americans
The US is less than 250 years old, but some of its most important archaeological sites are older than the Viking seafarers, the Roman Empire, and the pyramids. Many help tell the story of how the first humans came to North America. It's still a mystery exactly how and when people arrived, though it's widely believed they crossed the Bering Strait at least 15,000 years ago. "As we get further back in time, as we get populations that are smaller and smaller, finding these places and interpreting them becomes increasingly difficult," archaeologist Kenneth Feder told Business Insider. He's the author of " Ancient America: Fifty Archaeological Sites to See for Yourself." Some sites, like White Sands and Cooper's Ferry, have skeptics about the accuracy of their age. Still, they contribute to our understanding of some of the earliest Americans. Others are more recent and highlight the different cultures that were spreading around the country, with complex buildings and illuminating pictographs. Many of these places are open to the public, so you can see the US' ancient history for yourself. White Sands National Park, New Mexico Prehistoric camels, mammoths, and giant sloths once roamed what's now New Mexico, when it was greener and damper. As the climate warmed around 11,000 years ago, the water of Lake Otero receded, revealing footprints of humans who lived among these extinct animals. Some even seemed to be following a sloth, offering a rare glimpse into ancient hunters' behavior. Recent research puts some of these fossilized footprints at between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. If the dates are accurate, the prints would predate other archaeological sites in the US, raising intriguing questions about who these people were and how they arrived in the Southwestern state. "Where are they coming from?" Feder said. "They're not parachute dropping in New Mexico. They must have come from somewhere else, which means there are even older sites." Archaeologists simply haven't found them yet. While visitors can soak in the sight of the eponymous white sands, the footprints are currently off-limits. Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania In the 1970s, archaeologist James M. Adovasio sparked a controversy when he and his colleagues suggested stone tools and other artifacts found in southwestern Pennsylvania belonged to humans who had lived in the area 16,000 years ago. For decades, scientists had been finding evidence of human habitation that all seemed to be around 12,000 to 13,000 years old, belonging to the Clovis culture. They were long believed to have been the first to cross the Bering land bridge. Humans who arrived in North America before this group are often referred to as pre-Clovis. At the time, skeptics said that the radiocarbon dating evidence was flawed, AP News reported in 2016. In the years since, more sites that appear older than 13,000 years have been found across the US. Feder said Adovasio meticulously excavated the site, but there's still no clear consensus about the age of the oldest artifacts. Still, he said, "that site is absolutely a major, important, significant site." It helped archaeologists realize humans started arriving on the continent before the Clovis people. The dig itself is on display at the Heinz History Center, allowing visitors to see an excavation in person. Cooper's Ferry, Idaho One site that's added intriguing evidence to the pre-Clovis theory is located in western Idaho. Humans living there left stone tools and charred bones in a hearth between 14,000 and 16,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. Other researchers put the dates closer to 11,500 years ago. These stemmed tools are different from the Clovis fluted projectiles, researchers wrote in a 2019 Science Advances paper. Some scientists think humans may have been traveling along the West Coast at this time, when huge ice sheets covered Alaska and Canada. "People using boats, using canoes could hop along that coast and end up in North America long before those glacial ice bodies decoupled," Feder said. Cooper's Ferry is located on traditional Nez Perce land, which the Bureau of Land Management holds in public ownership. Page-Ladson, Florida In the early 1980s, former Navy SEAL Buddy Page alerted paleontologists and archaeologists to a sinkhole nicknamed "Booger Hole" in the Aucilla River. There, the researchers found mammoth and mastodon bones and stone tools. They also discovered a mastodon tusk with what appeared to be cut marks believed to be made by a tool. Other scientists have returned to the site more recently, bringing up more bones and tools. They used radiocarbon dating, which established the site as pre-Clovis. "The stone tools and faunal remains at the site show that at 14,550 years ago, people knew how to find game, fresh water and material for making tools," Michael Waters, one of the researchers, said in a statement in 2016. "These people were well-adapted to this environment." Paisley Caves, Oregon Scientists study coprolites, or fossilized poop, to learn about the diets of long-dead animals. Mineralized waste can also reveal much more. In 2020, archaeologist Dennis Jenkins published a paper on coprolites from an Oregon cave that were over 14,000 years old. Radiocarbon dating gave the trace fossils' age, and genetic tests suggested they belonged to humans. Further analysis of coprolites added additional evidence that a group had been on the West Coast 1,000 years before the Clovis people arrived. Located in southcentral Oregon, the caves appear to be a piece of the puzzle indicating how humans spread throughout the continent thousands of years ago. The federal Bureau of Land Management owns the land where the caves are found, and they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Swan Point, Alaska Whenever people arrived in the Americas, they crossed from Siberia into Beringia, an area of land and sea between Russia and Canada and Alaska. Now it's covered in water, but there was once a land bridge connecting them. The site in Alaska with the oldest evidence of human habitation is Swan Point, in the state's eastern-central region. In addition to tools and hearths dating back 14,000 years, mammoth bones have been found there. Researchers think this area was a kind of seasonal hunting camp. As mammoths returned during certain times of the years, humans would track them and kill them, providing plentiful food for the hunter-gatherers. While Alaska may have a wealth of archaeological evidence of early Americans, it's also a difficult place to excavate. "Your digging season is very narrow, and it's expensive," Feder said. Some require a helicopter to reach, for example. Blackwater Draw, New Mexico In 1929, 19-year-old James Ridgley Whiteman found mammoth bones along with fluted projectile points near Clovis, New Mexico. The Clovis people who made these tools were named for this site. Researchers studying the site began to realize the artifacts found at the site belonged to different cultures. Clovis points are typically larger than Folsom flutes, which were first found at another archaeological site in New Mexico. For decades after Whiteman's discovery, experts thought the Clovis people were the first to cross the Bering land bridge from Asia around 13,000 years ago. Estimates for humans' arrival is now thought to be at least 15,000 years ago. Upper Sun River, Alaska One reason the dates of human occupation in North America is so contentious is that very few ancient remains have been found. Among the oldest is a child from Upward Sun River, or Xaasaa Na', in Central Alaska. Archaeologists found the bones of the child in 2013. Local indigenous groups refer to her as Xach'itee'aanenh t'eede gay, or Sunrise Girl-Child. Genetic testing revealed the 11,300-year-old infant belonged to a previously unknown Native American population, the Ancient Beringians. Based on the child's genetic information, researchers learned that she was related to modern Native Americans but not directly. Their common ancestors started becoming genetically isolated 25,000 years ago before dividing into two groups after a few thousand years: the Ancient Berignians and the ancestors of modern Native Americans. Poverty Point National Monument, Louisiana Stretching over 80 feet long and 5 feet tall, the rows of curved mounds of Poverty Point are a marvel when viewed from above. Over 3,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers constructed them out of tons of soil. Scientists aren't sure exactly why people built them, whether they were ceremonial or a display of status. The artifacts various groups left behind indicate the site was used off and on for hundreds of years and was a meeting point for trading. People brought tools and rocks from as far as 800 miles away. Remains of deer, fish, frogs, alligators, nuts, grapes, and other food have given archaeologists insights into their diets and daily lives. Horseshoe Canyon, Utah Though remote, the multicolored walls of Horseshoe Canyon have long attracted visitors. Some of its artifacts date back to between 9,000 and 7,000 BCE, but its pictographs are more recent. Some tests date certain sections to around 2,000 to 900 years ago. The four galleries contain life-sized images of anthropomorphic figures and animals in what's known as the Barrier Canyon style. Much of this art is found in Utah, produced by the Desert Archaic culture. The pictographs may have spiritual and practical significance but also help capture a time when groups were meeting and mixing, according to the Natural History Museum of Utah. It's a difficult trek to get to the pictographs (and the NPS warns it can be dangerously hot in summer) but are amazing to view in person, Feder said. "These are creative geniuses," he said of the artists. Canyon de Chelly, Arizona Situated in the Navajo Nation, Canyon de Chelly has gorgeous desert views and thousands of years of human history. Centuries ago, Ancestral Pueblo and Hopi groups planted crops, created pictographs, and built cliff dwellings. Over 900 years ago, Puebloan people constructed the White House, named for the hue of its clay. Its upper floors sit on a sandstone cliff, with a sheer drop outside the windows. Navajo people, also known as Diné, still live in Canyon de Chelly. Diné journalist Alastair Lee Bitsóí recently wrote about visiting some of the sacred and taboo areas. They include Tsé Yaa Kin, where archaeologists found human remains. In the 1860s, the US government forced 8,000 Navajo to relocate to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. The deadly journey is known as the "Long Walk." Eventually, they were able to return, though their homes and crops were destroyed. A hike to the White House is the only one open to the public without a Navajo guide or NPS ranger. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado In the early 1900s, two women formed the Colorado Cliff Dwelling Association, hoping to preserve the ruins in the state's southwestern region. A few years later, President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill designating Mesa Verde as the first national park meant to "preserve the works of man." Mesa Verde National Park holds hundreds of dwellings, including the sprawling Cliff Palace. It has over 100 rooms and nearly two dozen kivas, or ceremonial spaces. Using dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, archaeologists learned when Ancestral Pueblo people built some of these structures and that they migrated out of the area by the 1300s. Feder said it's his favorite archaeological site he's visited. "You don't want to leave because you can't believe it's real," he said. Tourists can view many of these dwellings from the road, but some are also accessible after a bit of a hike. Some require extra tickets and can get crowded, Feder said. Cahokia, Illinois Cahokia has been called one of North America's first cities. Not far from present-day St. Louis, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people lived in dense settlements roughly 1,000 years ago. Important buildings sat atop large mounds, which the Mississippians built by hand, The Guardian reported. At the time, it was thriving with hunters, farmers, and artisans. "It's an agricultural civilization," Feder said. "It's a place where raw materials from a thousand miles away are coming in." Researchers have also found mass graves, potentially from human sacrifices. The inhabitants built circles of posts, which one archaeologist later referred to as "woodhenges," as a kind of calendar. At the solstices, the sun would rise or set aligned with different mounds. After a few hundred years, Cahokia's population declined and disappeared by 1350. Its largest mound remains, and some aspects have been reconstructed. Montezuma Castle, Arizona Perched on a limestone cliff in Camp Verde, Arizona, this site is an apartment, not a castle, and is unrelated to the Aztec ruler Montezuma. The Sinagua people engineered the five-story, 20-room building around 1100. It curves to follow the natural line of the cliff, which would have been more difficult than simply making a straight building, Feder said. "These people were architects," he said. "They had a sense of beauty." The inhabitants were also practical, figuring out irrigation systems and construction techniques, like thick walls and shady spots, to help them survive the hot, dry climate. Feder said the dwelling is fairly accessible, with a short walk along a trail to view it, though visitors can't go inside the building itself.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
How Frameline is asking ‘allies to show up' for trans and nonbinary movie fans
Facing adversity, Frameline is going on the offensive. Amid anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and drastic cuts to arts funding in just the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the organizer of the nation's oldest and largest queer film festival is forging new partnerships and innovating at the grass roots level. One standout is a unique pay-it-forward campaign to provide free tickets to transgender and nonbinary attendees to a documentary that's ripped from today's headlines. 'We're asking our audience and allies to show up and take real, tangible action,' said Frameline Executive Director Allegra Madsen. 'With resources and support for LGBTQ+ people drying up, queer people have to show up for each other and, in particular, trans folks. When I think of using the past as a roadmap for navigating the challenges ahead, it's clear that community care, in all its forms, is the answer.' Sam Feder's documentary 'Heightened Scrutiny,' which focuses on American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio — the first openly trans person to argue before the Supreme Court, is scheduled to make its California premiere on June 20 at the American Conservatory Theater's 1,000-seat Toni Rembe Theater, Frameline told the Chronicle on Wednesday, April 30. It is the First Friday screening at the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, considered almost a second opening night film, followed by the First Friday party at Charmaine's, the Proper Hotel's rooftop bar on Market Street. Frameline patrons who buy a ticket for 'Heightened Scrutiny' and/or the party to purchase tickets on behalf of trans or nonbinary attendees. Tickets are available now at A recipient of Frameline's 2025 Completion Fund Grant, 'Heightened Scrutiny' focuses on Strangio's high-stakes legal battle to overturn Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The Supreme Court's decision on the case, United States v. Skrmetti, is expected to be handed down during the June 18-28 festival. 'As a community, we are bearing witness,' Frameline said in a statement. 'No matter the results, we need to be in a room together. Feder's timely documentary not only provides an opportunity to gather in the same space, it also gives us a moment to show up for each other.' Feder shared he was inspired to make films by attending Frameline in the early 2000s. 'I made my first feature in 2006, and since then my films have been indebted to the bold, sometimes risky, choices and craft that I witnessed at the festival,' Feder said. 'Our goal is to use 'Heightened Scrutiny' in solidarity with, and for coalition building among, all movements of oppressed peoples. Our team is so grateful for Frameline's support at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are so viciously under attack.' This season, Frameline is also partnering with the California Film Institute to preview a selection of five films at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael from June 13-15, the weekend before the festival begins. Titles include Elena Oxman's San Francisco-filmed 'Outerlands,' which just closed the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival on Sunday, April 27. Olivia Colman and John Lithgow, as both festivals' opening night film. The full festival lineup will be announced at a later date.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hitler's Terrible Tariffs
From almost the moment Adolf Hitler took office as chancellor of Germany, tariffs were at the top of his government's economic agenda. The agricultural sector's demands for higher tariffs 'must be met,' Hitler's economic minister, Alfred Hugenberg, declared on Wednesday, February 1, 1933, just over 48 hours into Hitler's chancellorship, 'while at the same time preventing harm to industry.' Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath was concerned about lumber imports from Austria and a 200-million-Reichsmark trade deal with Russia. With several trade agreements about to expire, Hitler's finance minister, Count Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, insisted that 'immediate decisions' needed to be made. Hitler told his cabinet he had only one priority—to avoid 'unacceptable unrest' in advance of the March 5 Reichstag elections, which he saw as key to his hold on power. Hitler had what one might call a diffident, occasionally felonious disregard for financial matters. He owed 400,000 reichsmarks in back taxes. His understanding of economics was primitive. 'You have inflation only if you want it,' Hitler once said. 'Inflation is a lack of discipline. I will see to it that prices remain stable. I have my S.A. for that.' (The S.A., or Brownshirts, were the original paramilitary organization associated with the Nazi Party.) Hitler held Jews responsible for most of Germany's financial woes. Hitler relied on Gottfried Feder, the National Socialist Party's long-serving chief economist, to develop the specifics of an economic program. Feder had helped concoct the strange brew of socialism and fanatical nationalism in the original 25-point program of this putative 'workers' party.' In May 1932, Feder outlined what would become the first Nazi economic plan a 32-page position paper designed for ready implementation were Hitler to suddenly find himself in power. High on Feder's agenda for a Hitler economy were tariffs. [Timothy W. Ryback: What the press got wrong about Hitler] 'National Socialism demands that the needs of German workers no longer be supplied by Soviet slaves, Chinese coolies, and Negroes,' Feder wrote. Germany needed German workers and farmers producing German goods for German consumers. Feder saw 'import restrictions' as key to returning the German economy to the Germans. 'National Socialism opposes the liberal world economy, as well as the Marxist world economy,' Feder wrote. Our fellow Germans must 'be protected from foreign competition.' Even though Hitler's own foreign minister, Konstantin von Neurath, was concerned that the strategy would spark a trade war, and could drive up the price of imported eggs by 600 percent, Feder's tariffs fit into Hitler's larger vision for 'liberating' the German people from the shackles of a globalized world order. The crash of 1929 had plunged Germany, along with much of the rest of the world, into an abyss. Markets collapsed. Factories were idled. Unemployment soared. In the early 1930s, one out of three German workers was unemployed. But Hitler had inherited a recovering economy: In December 1932, the German Institute for Economic Research reported that the crisis had been 'significantly overcome'; by the time Hitler was appointed chancellor, in January 1933, the economy was on the mend. Thus Hitler's main economic task as chancellor was not to mess things up. The German stock market had rallied on news of his coming to power. 'The Boerse recovered today from its weakness when it learned of Adolf Hitler's appointment, an outright boom extending over the greater part of stocks,' The New York Times reported. But rumors of potential tariffs and the abrogation of international agreements, along with Hitler's challenges to the constitutional order, sent alarm bells clanging. The conservative Centre Party warned Hitler against 'unconstitutional, economically harmful, socially reactionary and currency endangering experiments.' Eduard Hamm, a former economics minister who served on the board of the German Industry and Trade Association, dispatched a stern letter to the new chancellor instructing him on the 'legal, economic and psychological prerequisites for building capital.' The free-market system, Hamm reminded Hitler, was based on trust, the rule of law, and adherence to contractual obligations. Hamm went on to explain that even though Germany imported more agricultural products than it exported to its European neighbors, these countries provided markets for German industrial production. (At the time, Germany imported on average 1.5 billion reichsmarks annually in agricultural products, while exporting an average 5.5 billion reichsmarks in industrial and manufactured goods.) 'The maintenance of export relations to these countries is a mandatory requirement,' Hamm wrote. If one were to 'strangle' trade through tariffs, it would endanger German industrial production—which, in turn, would inflict severe self-harm on the German economy, and lead to increased unemployment. 'Exporting German goods provides three million workers with jobs,' Hamm wrote. The last thing Germany's recovering but still-fragile economy needed was a trade war. Hamm urged Hitler to exercise 'greatest caution' in his tariff policies. But Hitler made no effort to reassure the markets, insisting that the tariffs were necessary and that he needed time to fix the ruined country his predecessors had left him. 'Within four years the German farmer must be saved from destitution,' Hitler said in his first national radio address as chancellor. 'Within four years unemployment must be completely overcome.' Hitler provided scant details as to how this was to be accomplished. By this point, he had broken even with the tariff cheerleader Feder, and had abandoned most of the action items for developing a nationalist and socialist economy. These items had included increased taxation of the wealthy; state supervision of large corporations; and the prohibition of 'new department stores, low-priced shops, and chain stores.' As chancellor, Hitler left his own plans for the German economy intentionally vague. His chief priority, as he told his ministers, was to secure an outright majority in the March 5 Reichstag elections. Hitler calculated that he needed between 18 million and 19 million votes. 'There is no economic program that could meet with the approval of such a large mass of voters,' Hitler told party leaders. But although the average voter may not have cared about the details of the Hitler economy, the markets did. The initial surge in stocks that greeted Hitler's appointment halted then dipped and flattened amid the political and economic uncertainty of Hitler's chaotic first weeks as chancellor. The German Industry and Trade Association issued a public warning on tariffs. 'Germany has the largest export surplus of all major trading countries,' the association reported. 'This situation calls for double caution in trade policy measures that could lead to countermeasures.' Hans Joachim von Rohr, who worked at the Reich's nutrition ministry, went on national radio to explain the logic of Hitler's tariff strategy. 'The products that Germany lacks must be made more expensive; then farmers will produce them in sufficient quantities,' Rohr explained. 'And if foreign competition is kept at bay by tariffs and the like, city residents will prefer domestic production.' Rohr offered lard—'Schmalz'—as an example. If Germany raised the import duty on Schmalz, a staple of the German diet, the German farmer would be motivated by the price increase to raise 'three-ton pigs,' the main source of lard, instead of the more common 'two-ton pigs,' the major source of bacon. The problem, as one critic observed, was that bacon was more lucrative than lard, even as 'lard pigs' consumed more feed than 'bacon pigs.' Switching from bacon pigs to lard pigs, this critic calculated, would ultimately drive the pig farmer into bankruptcy. He noted further that the international trading system had been in place for 200 years and proved itself beneficial to all parties. Hitler's proposed 'national economy,' with its self-defeating tariff policies, would plunge the country into a 'severe crisis' that could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. And that was even before any damage wreaked by retaliatory tariffs. The Hitler tariffs, announced on Friday, February 10, 1933, stunned observers. 'The dimension of the tariff increases have in fact exceeded all expectations,' the Vossische Zeitung wrote disapprovingly, proclaiming the moment a 'fork in the road' for the German economy. It appeared that Europe's largest and most industrialized nation would suddenly be returning 'to the furrow and the plow.' The New York Times saw this for what it was: 'a trade war' against its European neighbors. The primary targets of the Hitler tariffs—the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands—were outraged by the sudden suspension of favored-nation trading status on virtually all agricultural products, as well as on textiles, with tariffs in some cases rising 500 percent. With its livestock essentially banished from the German market, Denmark, for example, was facing substantial losses. Farmers panicked. The Danes and Swedes threatened 'retaliatory measures,' as did the Dutch, who warned the Germans that the countermeasures would be felt as 'palpable blows' to German industrial exports. That proved to be true. [Read: Worse than Signalgate] 'Our exports have shrunk significantly,' Foreign Minister Neurath informed Hitler in one cabinet meeting, 'and our relations to our neighboring countries are threatening to deteriorate.' Neurath noted that informal contacts with Dutch interlocutors had been 'bruskly broken off.' Trade relations with Sweden and Denmark were similarly strained, as were those with France and Yugoslavia. Finance Minister Krosigk anticipated that the agricultural sector would require an additional 100 million reichsmarks in deficit spending. Hitler launched his trade war on the second Friday of his chancellorship. That evening, he appeared in the Berlin Sportpalast, the city's largest venue, for a rally in front of thousands of jubilant followers. It was his first public appearance as chancellor, and it served as a victory lap. Hitler dispensed with the dark suit he wore in cabinet meetings in favor of his brown storm-trooper uniform with a bright-red swastika armband. In his address, Hitler declared that the entire country needed to be rebuilt after years of mismanagement by previous governments. He spoke of the 'sheer madness' of international obligations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, of the need to restore 'life, liberty, and happiness' to the German people, of the need for 'cleansing' the bureaucracy, public life, culture, the population, 'every aspect of our life.' His tariff regime, he implied, would help restore the pride and honor of German self-reliance. 'Never believe in help from abroad, never on help from outside our own nation, our own people,' Hitler said. 'The future of the German people is to be found in our own selves.' Hitler did not refer specifically to the trade war he had launched that afternoon, just as he did not mention the rearmament plans he had discussed with his cabinet the previous day. 'Billions of reichsmarks are needed for rearmament,' Hitler had told his ministers in that meeting. 'The future of Germany depends solely and exclusively on the rebuilding of the army.' Hitler's trade war with his neighbors would prove to be but a prelude to his shooting war with the world. Article originally published at The Atlantic
