WEBVTT - From the Vault: Sinkholes, Part 2 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.720 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.720 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and today 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:12.880 we're bringing you an episode from the vault. This is 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.120 part two of our series on sinkholes that originally aired 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:23.720 in January. Let's jump right in Welcome to Stuff to 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:33.280 Blow Your Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:34.920 to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.040 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.479 two of our discussion of sink holes. Now. In the 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.640 last episode, we talked about some some fabulous examples of 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.440 sinkholes that suddenly open up and reveal interesting things. Below, 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.520 we talked about how sinkholes form, the geology and hydrology 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.280 of sinkholes, and we talked about some interesting specific examples 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.240 in the world. But today we wanted to get into 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:03.720 some things about the religious significance of sinkholes and sinkholes 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.319 as a scientific tool that can help show us things 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.959 about the past UH and also maybe some sinkholes in space. 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.440 But I thought sinkholes in religion would be a good 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:17.160 place to start because one of the interesting ways of 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:25.400 conceptualizing UH deities is that deities are often manifestations of 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.600 natural forces and natural resources, and of course one of 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.920 the most important natural resources is water, so there are 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.600 all kinds of water deities around the world. Coastal civilizations 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.920 and cultures will have deities associated with the ocean that 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.840 are very important in their culture. But if you're if 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.080 you're more inland, there will often be deities associated with 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.880 where you get your fresh water. Either are a very 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.200 important river or they're even There are lots of holy 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:56.040 wells that are found throughout the history of Europe, both 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:58.520 Pagan and Christian. There are a lot of like holy 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.840 wells and water sources, and the same is true of 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.840 many sinkholes in ancient meso America. That's right, um, in 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:12.320 particular the sacred senotes of the Maya, which is what 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.919 we'd like to talk about here. I was reading a piece, 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.399 really nice piece on Mexico Lore dot co dot UK 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:27.520 by Maya archaeologist Andrew kenkela Um just titled Sacred Sinkholes, 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.000 and he discusses sum of what we've already mentioned in 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.480 regard to, you know, the large number of these sinkholes 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.640 of sinotes in Mesoamerica. The entire area is situated on 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.560 a limestone bedrock, and we end up with with these 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.760 hollows and then they collapse, and then of course then 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.480 they often fill with water. But so yeah, your world 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:49.799 left with something. There's not just a deep pit, which 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:54.400 alone can be pretty interesting, but pits with water often 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.919 from deep underground, so you're often talking clean water, clear 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:02.480 water an ideal source. Some of these contain as much 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.239 as like fifty meters of water. Uh. He points out. Yeah, 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.839 there are a lot of fascinating things about these sinkholes. 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.080 One of which, just before I forget, I wanted to 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.840 call attention to that they explore some of these uh 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.400 sinotes in the Yucatan Peninsula. In the documentary that we 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.080 recently interviewed Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer about there, there's 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.480 a segment where they so that documentary is called Fireball, 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.360 and it's about impacts from space and the scars they 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.320 leave on Earth and and what we can learn from them. 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.359 And one of the things they explore is if if 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.120 you look at a map of the senotes of the 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.720 Yucatan Peninsula, there's one part of the Yucatan where there's 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:44.240 this almost perfect partial ring of sinotes and it's like, 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.720 what's going on there? And that apparently corresponds to the 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.400 outer rim of the crater that was left by the 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.840 impact from the KPg extinction, the large space impact that 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.520 probably contributed significantly to the extinction of the non avian 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.680 dinasas wars. And so in Fireball there's a segment where 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:07.280 where Clive Oppenheimer goes down into one of these beautiful 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.040 ancient senotes with a local researcher and and they talk 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.800 about not just what it can tell is geologically we 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.160 might get a little bit more into that later, but 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.279 but also what it means religiously. Yeah, So, especially for 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:23.080 areas far from rivers, these sonotes became very important for 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.840 just purely practical reasons like this is where you could 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.400 get water. This enabled you to live and have you know, 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.040 have have communities that existed further away from those rivers. 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.159 But then they ended up taking on religious power as well. 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.920 And can Tela writes that the ancient Maya regarded senotes 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:44.159 as one of the three symbolic entry ways uh to Sibalba, 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:48.320 the Mayan underworld. So eventually this kind of he describes 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:52.440 it as a senote cult emerges devoted to venturing out, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.760 like taking these pilgrimages to different senotes, collecting water from 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.320 them from different different ones and making what offer rings 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:05.400 up to the watery depths. And their role these these priests, 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.120 these pilgrims, their role would have been seen is vitally important, 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:14.080 especially during times of drought, you know, when when the 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.599 the resources of the son Nottes becomes uh, you know, 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.200 in doubt or seems threatened, like they seem to have 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.680 a role in in trying to maintain the balance, to 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:28.159 try and maintain the bountiful gifts of these places. I 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.880 was also looking at an article on National Geographic titled 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:33.840 Secrets of the Maya in the Other World, and this 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:41.280 was by Alma Guillermo Prieto, and this is about the sinkholes, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.800 uh that we've been discussing here, and about how they 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:48.320 were also associated with a key deity which was chock. 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:50.840 I believe that it's spelled in this article is c 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.640 h A A K. I've also seen it with a 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.160 with a C ch A C. I think. Yeah, So 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.599 here's what they wrote in this article quote or this 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.440 is just a really I think telling a passage from it. 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.720 Quote for men like unkin the old gods are still 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.760 very much alive, and Chock, ruler of sinotes and caves, 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.520 is among the most important gods of all. For the 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.400 benefit of living things. He pours from the skies, the 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.599 water he keeps in earthenware, jars and caves. Chalk is 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.440 one in many. Each thunderclap is a separate chock in action, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.000 breaking a jar open and letting the rain fall. Each 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.960 god inhabits a separate layer of reality, along with dozens 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.320 of alternatively complacent and ferocious gods that live in the 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:40.160 thirteen other worlds above and the nine other worlds below. Together, 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.600 they filled the Maya people's lives with dreams, visions, and nightmares, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:49.280 a complicated calendar of agricultural times and fertility rituals, in 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.000 a firm sense of the way things must be done. 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.200 Chock had moved, Unkin said, and that meant the planting 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:00.839 season would soon arrive. That's beautiful. Yeah, yeah, So in 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:02.839 this we see that a cave or sinote could be 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.800 seen as as a dwelling place of chalk, but it 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.080 could also, can you know, be seen as this yawning 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.200 mall of the earth, or even this gateway to deeper 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:16.320 realms of reality. Yeah, and and this combines the multiple version, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.960 so you you can of course see these senotes as 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.160 a gateway to the underworld and a source of water. 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.400 But I was also reading in a different National Geographic 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:30.040 article um about like the the the specifics of certain senotes. Like, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.840 it's not just all senotes are religiously equivalent. There would be, 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.560 for example, some senotes and specific locations that have different 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.960 religious significance for the people who live nearby. The one 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.640 I was thinking of was the a senote that, as 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:46.840 the ancient mind city had a wall, there was like 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.800 many senotes within the wall that could be used as 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.559 a water source. But there's one senote outside the city 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.040 wall that it seems was regarded primarily as a place 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:58.760 for the burial of the dead. And there have been 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.960 many human remains found down inside that one. Yeah, yeah there, Yeah, 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.320 they're they're a whole slew of them with different significance. 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.480 Is the most famous of the sonotes, uh, it's probably 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:12.840 the Sacred Sinote at the Maya site of Sanita, where 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.280 there was this, it's been a place of of a 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.640 fair amount of study. There was a small building by 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.320 it that was apparently used for blood sacrifices um, again 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.720 tying into traditions related to the you know, the sacredness 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.920 of the spot and the continuation of water. Variety of 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.000 sacred objects were also apparently cast into the sinote, including 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:37.640 precious jade artifacts, gold and copper disks, uh, foods, and 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.600 other organic items that that we've we actually can find 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.000 you know, evidence of. But uh, yeah, so you think 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.200 of this as like an opening up into the world 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.160 below where you might throw offerings, where you might make 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:53.480 sacrifices of material or sacrifices of blood. It's hard for 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.800 me not to sort of connect this to some of 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:57.920 the stuff we were talking about in the previous episode 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.600 where there is a pretty your link between pumping too 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.000 much groundwater up. You know, like there's certain places where 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.040 there's a need for for massive irrigation of fields maybe 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.160 sometime to like protect a certain crop from frost or something, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:14.360 so you will pump just tons and tons of water 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.920 just to put over the fields so so so much 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.960 that you really lower the level of the groundwater and 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.120 suddenly cause lots of sinkholes to to open up where 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.200 the suddenly the you know, the water pressure is not 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.880 what it was below the overburden can't hold up its 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.160 own weight and then collapses. And this has happened in 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.440 the US in places like Florida. I mean, it could 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.880 be it's very easy to see how something like that 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:42.120 could be interpreted as as the wrath of the gods, right, yeah, absolutely, yeah, 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.920 you're you're messing with the domain of the the earth gods. Now. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.400 One of the interesting things about these Mesoamerican traditions concerning 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.360 sinots is that it's also thought that that native people's 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.599 um elsewhere in the America has probably carried some of these, uh, 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.160 these ideas with and so when you encounter of some 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:07.680 North American sinotes, there's there's evidence of that these areas 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.800 that native peoples may have used them as burial places 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.400 as well given them, um, you know, places of importance 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:18.280 in their worldviews. And one such place is Devil Sinkhole 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.680 northwest of San San Antonio. Um it's now a state park, 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.679 but it's a hundred and forty ft deep or forty 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.720 three meters deep, and um uh yeah, apparently there's evidence 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.480 that ancient people's came here and probably held it in 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:36.320 some esteem. But one of the really crazy natural world 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.320 things about Devil Sinkhole is that it is home to 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:42.319 or at least part of the year, it is home 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.400 to three million Mexican freetailed bats. Wow, that's a lot 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:51.040 of bats. Yeah, so they migrate to Mexico for the 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.680 cooler months, but they roost up in the sinkhole other 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.719 parts of the year. And we've we've talked about how 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.600 amazing bats are in the show before and especially especially 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:05.360 insectivore uh bats you know that eat insects. Well, it's 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.440 been estimated that the bats that live in Devil Sinkhole 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:12.360 again something like three million Mexican freetail bats that they 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:18.200 consume un estimated thirty tons of beetles and moths each night, 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:23.360 each night, thirty tons, thirty tons beetles and moths. That's crazy. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:25.480 That's one of those facts that makes you wonder how 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:28.800 many tons of beetles they're just are already? Like, is 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.200 that is that half the beetles in the area? Is 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.760 that one percent of the beetles in the area. Yeah, 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.320 I mean, it's just a tremendous biomass out there, and 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:39.800 these bats are here for it um and most of 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.280 it is insect or arthur pod in some way, or 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.840 you know, most of the animal is is arthur pod 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.559 in some way, and wow, that's just amazing. You can 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:53.600 measuring insects or beetles in units of like garbage truck fulls. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.840 So I love this because, yeah, this is a great 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.880 example of just sort of how like we said in 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:02.920 the last episode, when a sinkhole occurs, it does not 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.400 you know, create this natural void. Like. Things will move 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.840 into the sinkhole, things will take advantage of this new 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.160 um aspect of the geography, and in this case, the 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.360 bats make it their home. So if you if you've 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.520 lived in the San Antonio area, you've visited there, and 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.319 you've been to two Devil sinkhole, I'd love to hear, uh, 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:23.839 hear about your experience checking it out. I know, if 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:25.760 you go during the right time of the year, you 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:29.120 can actually observe the bats like, uh, moving in and 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.520 out of the of the cavern area. So uh, it 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.920 sounds beautiful. I've read that there are also I mean, 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.120 one of the things is that belief in the sacredness 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.040 of of sinkholes and and their association with the world 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.880 of the gods is not just an ancient belief, it's 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.320 not necessarily extinct. I mean there are people today for 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.839 whom sinkholes hold sacred importance, and if if you, if 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.200 you are one of those people or know some, I'd 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.320 like to hear about that too. Yeah, yeah, I'd love 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:58.760 to hear, especially the details about any modern rights associated 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.160 with it, and and just of the belief system built 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:09.360 up around it, you know, the stories than Now, one 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.280 of the things we mentioned in the previous episode is 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.600 that the sink whole is a natural feature that can 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.800 inadvertently serve as a type of scientific instrument, much in 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:20.960 the same way that like ancient ice. You know, it's 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.080 like nobody intended it to be this way, but we 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.040 can learn things about the ancient climate from taking ice cores, 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.680 so that you know, those layers of ice really give 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.240 us a lot to read into the history of the Earth. 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.840 And apparently sinkholes can do the same thing, right, that's right. 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.120 I mean, you know, we think about how they gobble 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.760 up parts of the surface world, and yeah, they do 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.400 sometimes do scientists a huge favor by collecting and to 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.760 some degree preserving evidence of past life forms, even past 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.440 like storm activity and and and climates of ancient times. Uh. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.360 And so when we ventured into the sink whole. With 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:58.079 the right tools or with the right methods, we're able 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.439 to uncover those secrets that have been reserved there. And 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.040 they've just been There've been numerous studies that have looked 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.680 at sinkholes and uh and gathered specific information from from 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.800 these sinkholes, and we're not gonna be able to give 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.240 a full overview of them here in this episode, but 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.800 I wanted to touch on some that I thought provided 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.200 a reasonable overview and in an idea of what sort 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.960 of stuff we can learn from sinkholes. So uh, there's 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.840 the For instance, in two thousand fourteen, a team from 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:31.040 the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne studied genetic information 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:35.000 extracted from the tooth of an adolescent girl who fell 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.880 into a sinkhole in the Yucatan some twelve thousand to 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.680 thirteen thousand years ago, and this with her remains were 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.920 found alongside the remains of ancient beasts. Because you know, 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.720 what what occurs is some of these really treacherous sinkholes, 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.760 is like things will fall in and then they cannot 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.080 get out, and of course they die down there. They 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.640 decay down there, and the remains are down there for 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.040 us to later discuss ever in study. Oh, I hadn't 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.640 thought about this, but I wonder if sinkholes are one 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.760 of these things, one of these terrain features that can 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.880 serve as a natural predator trap. Um. A predator trap is, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.760 I guess, a concept in the interaction between the landscape 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.320 and and the animals that live nearby. But you know, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.240 a classic example is like the Librettar pits. You know, 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.000 so a an animal becomes stranded and dies in it, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.400 and then the smell attracts predators or scavengers who then 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.840 themselves become trapped. Another example I was reading about not 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.480 too long ago was there is a geologically active valley 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.680 in the cum Chotka Peninsula where often like birds are 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.480 killed by volcanic fumes, and then their decaying bodies attract 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.240 predators into the area, who then also are killed by 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.920 the fumes, and it leads to this feedback cycle. Yeah, yeah, 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.120 it's uh. I think in some cases they definitely are 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.640 serving as predator traps um. So in this particular study, 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:59.160 one of the reasons this tooth was so important is 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.080 that the researchers were studying the influx of humans into 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.840 the America's and wanted to see of a specimen such 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.720 as this with a skull shape that was that is 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.160 unusual among other Native American lineages. They wanted to see 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.800 if it fell in line genetically with those lineages or 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:19.160 represented something else, perhaps lining up with theories about migration 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.960 from Southeast Asia or even Australia that didn't come in 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.960 through the bearing straight um. And they found that their 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.760 remains did line up with with the bearing straight or 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.680 Barringian migration. So that's just one cool example. Okay, let's 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.280 hear another, all right, Yeah, here's one from nineteen Researchers 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.360 from the Florida Museum of Natural History looked at the 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.360 preserved bones of a Craton's carcara and an extinct carrion 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.760 eating falcon from the Caribbean that was killed off roughly 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.120 a thousand years ago when humans first entered the region. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.720 And they were looking at these remains in a flooded 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:59.000 sinkhole um on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, and 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.640 the whole is a amill sink, a a hundred foot deep, dark, 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.680 oxygen free environment that preserved the two thousand, five hundred 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:09.720 year old bones of this creature enough that they could 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.679 they could conduct genetic studies of it. In fact, the 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.600 bone yielded ninety eight point seven percent of the bird's 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:21.120 mitochondrial genome, which is pretty impressive. Again, it's like it's 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:26.280 like a deep cooler, you know, it preserves these remains, 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.640 uh that if they were dropped, you know, in other 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:31.879 places on the world, would have just been long lost, 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.399 no ice required. UM. Here's another one of note. In 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.160 two thousand and eighteen, another study from the University of Illinois, 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.359 your Banno Champagne studied the remains of a giant sloth 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:46.160 that fell into a sinkhole in what is now Carriblanca 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.760 in central Belize twenty seven thousand years ago. And in 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.800 this the tooth, humorous and femur were partially fossilized, but 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.040 there was still enough unaltered tissue for stable carbon and 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.560 oxygen isotope analysis to study what the slow off eight. 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.639 And this in turn revealed details about local climate and 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.320 local environment there in that region at that time, which 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.159 is pretty pretty astounding. Did did it say exactly what 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.520 the sloth did eat? Um? I didn't get into the 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:20.760 the the nuts and berries of that. Basically, suffice to say, 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.919 I'd love to come back and discuss um. Uh, giant 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.720 ground slots more in the future though, But but basically 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.159 it provided them the the information they needed to, you know, 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.720 to actually gaze back in the past and consider, you know, 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.200 what it was consuming, and that means what was around it, 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:37.800 what was you know, how it was able to make 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.080 its home in in the world at that time. So 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.639 it's pretty amazing. We could probably do a whole episode 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.960 or series of episodes just on really interesting studies finding 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:51.240 out what ancient peoples and creatures eight using analyses and 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.040 chemical analyses of these kinds. Yeah, I mean it reveals 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.200 so much, so much. Absolutely. One I was just reading 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.720 not too long ago that was kind of funny to 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:05.439 me was, um, was a chemical analysis of a gigantic 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:07.960 copper light found I think it was around the city 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.240 of York in England that revealed it was left by 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:13.959 a human I think like a thousand years ago or so, 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.840 you know, roughly, and revealed a diet heavy and meat 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:23.760 and bread, but also just just riddled with intestinal worms. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.280 So then you get the double You have the fossilized poop, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:30.399 but then the fossilized creatures that were writhing inside it. 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:33.040 But I guess if it's about a thousand years ago. 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.040 I'm not sure. I'm not sure if that counts as fossilized. 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:37.960 I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know. 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.360 So it was, you know, poop from hundreds of years ago, 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.280 so you know, roughly around a thousand years ago. But 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:46.760 is that technically a fossil or is that just very 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.320 well preserved poop. We'll have to come back and discuss 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.840 in the future. Okay. Um, here's a two thousand twenty 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.320 study from go Through University in Frankfort. They dove into 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.080 one of the most impressive sinkholes in the world, the 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.119 Blue Hole. I believe we mentioned this um in the 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.040 last episode, at least in Passing Uh. This is a 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:10.479 flooded cart sinkhole on Lighthouse Reef in Belize and they 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.560 were able to to to drill up and analyze a 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:18.640 sedimentary quote storm archive covering two thousand years of history, 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.359 built layer by layer by layer in the dark depth 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:24.800 of this whole, and it revealed a lot about the 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.680 frequency of tropical storms in the area. Over time. They 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.280 found quote hurricanes in the Caribbean became more frequent in 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.160 their force varied noticeably around the same time that classical 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:40.439 mind culture in Central America suffered its final demise. So 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.760 again just a chance to do gaze back in time 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:47.000 and see what what was going on, um, you know, 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.160 with the climate and with weather patterns by looking into 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.600 the sinkhole. So is the suggestion there. I assume it's 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.360 not totally known, but the suggestion there may be that 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:00.840 the organizational decline of the mind Civilis station was in 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:05.280 some ways possibly related to changes in weather patterns. That's 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.640 my understanding that it would have would have impacted UH, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.960 that that civilization UH and would have potentially contributed. Yeah. 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.959 I also ran across a two thousand seventeen study from 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.600 the University of Hawaii at Manoa that looked into uh 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.520 uh Makawai Cave and Kauaii, the largest limestone cave in 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.439 y and only accessible via a sinkhole. So it's a 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:33.440 it's a rich fossil site providing insight into Hawaiian life. 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:38.240 The sinkhole Paleo Lake contains ten thousand years of sedimentary information, 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:41.399 revealing a rich diversity of natural information as well as 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.240 Polynesian artifacts. So in this study they were able to 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:48.880 find supporting evidence in the coral fragments there to discover 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.840 the source of the mega earthquake UH in the Aleutian 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:57.879 Islands that spawned the devastating fifteen eighties six tsunami that 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:02.000 hit uh sen Riku, Japan. And so uh, you know again, 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.080 it's it goes beyond merely being able to go in 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:07.760 and find the remains of creatures, you know, which is 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:09.800 I think the first place your mind goes when you 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.679 think about sinkholes. But able to to be able to 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.679 go in there and find some some shattered bits of 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.480 coral and then compare that to um two other bits 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.200 of information and sort of piece together like seismic activities 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.679 that occurred centuries ago. And I have I have one 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.840 more here. This one's really fun too. Back in v 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.640 a twenty five thousand year old sinkhole in Wyoming Natural 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:38.120 Trap Cave and Big Horn Canyon was found. It measured 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.480 fifteen feet across about eighty five ft deep, and when 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:44.240 they went into it, they discovered fossils of mammoths, short 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:49.200 faced bears, camels, and um collared limmings. But they ended 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:51.399 up boarding it up after that for thirty years to 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.119 prevent accidental falls. Because the Natural Park Service I was 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:59.160 reading describes that Uh, this particular sinkhole is quote virtually 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:03.199 impossible to see until it is directly underfoot, and if 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:05.200 you look at pictures of it, yeah, it looks because 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:10.040 if you fell, like it widens out underneath, so you 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:12.320 wouldn't like skid along the side of this or even 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:14.320 like it would just you would just plummet down to 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:17.480 the bottom. Yeah. It's not a cone. It's not even 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:19.800 a cylinder. It's like a jug with the with the 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:23.640