New Study Reveals Current Human Species Are Leaving Behind Traces Called ‘Technofossils’ for the Future
Experts put together the story of humanity's past with the aid of remnants left behind by several ancestors. This practice is expected to continue even in the coming years, however, the nature of these remnants will possibly change, stated CNN. The theory has been proposed by Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz, both paleontologists associated with the University of Leicester in their book Discarded: How Technofossils Will Be Our Ultimate Legacy.
The book claims that a new style of fossilization will emerge in the future. This new style will incorporate manufactured items like concrete buildings, cell phones, aluminum cans, T-shirts, wind turbines, teabags, and plastic bottles. Paleontologists believe this will turn out to be more comprehensive evidence of modern human existence for future civilizations than any other present-day material.
On introspecting regarding what will be left behind by the present humanity, the experts claimed that plastics will likely form the bulk of it. The high amount of modern plastic usage indicates that the material will be found embedded for millennia almost everywhere, including landfills and ocean sediments. "We make 100 billion garments every year, and about 60% of those are plastics-based. In terms of what’s going to be really common, I think things like plastic bottles, plastic bags, ballpoint pens, and so on and so forth. And then also clothing. I think that will be a very distinctive signature," Gabbott shared.
The duo further pointed out how plastics have seeped into every part of human lifestyle. Clothing that typically involved material that could be eaten by insects now has plastics that cannot be digested by any being. Such materials cannot be decomposed, but they can be fossilized, and hence will turn out to be the present civilization's representative to future species.
For organic materials, there are a lot of conditions that need to be apt for fossilization. This is not the case for plastics and many other manufactured items. Therefore, the possibility is more than human remains, future civilizations will examine plastics to figure out the past. "I would say that most of the materials that we make actually have a higher preservation potential than organic materials. We’re making these objects and these materials to be super durable, to resist weathering, to resist sunlight, to resist abrasion and not to be eaten by other animals. We’re really giving all these materials a fighting chance of being fossilized," Gabbott explained. "And then we end up sticking loads of them in giant landfills, where we take away water and we wrap them in plastic, and we make them into giant sarcophaguses, which have got really fabulous conditions to help things become fossilized."
Researchers believe that how accurately future paleontologists will be able to figure out the world's history will depend on what items they come across. Some of the most commonly used items of today might be the biggest mystery for them to solve. "A good example of this might be a mobile phone. If you take a smartphone, it’s just a sort of rectangular object. It’s got a plastic backing, so that will preserve beautifully. It’s got a glass front, but over time, just a couple of thousand years, glass basically starts to go cloudy," Gabbott added.
The duo speculates the fossils that will be most appealing to future civilizations will be those that would have exceptional preservation. Judging by present activities, there are many things humans are throwing out that would stun future experts. "We make and throw away lots of stuff like epoxy resin, which will work like amber. We do throw lots of materials into conditions where there is a lack of oxygen, so you slow down decay. One would guess (there will be) wonderful and exceptional preservation here and there that they will happen upon because of the circumstances we’ve produced entirely by accident," Zalasiewicz shared.