According to scientists, chickens are the most surprising evidence of the Anthropocene

The chicken bones, according to a group of scientists, are the unusual evidence of the sudden change that upset life and could be the sign of the beginning of a a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene, or “Age of Man”.

That’s the conclusion of researchers who have spent years searching for evidence that increasing appetites and human activity have so radically altered natural systems.

In addition to these bones, half a million years from now, there will be other telltale signs of the planet’s breakup in the mid-20th century: the sudden increase in CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases, radioactive remnants of nuclear tests, the ubiquity of plastic and the spread of invasive species.

“Marker species” of the Anthropocene

Chicken bones could be one of the most reliable pieces of evidence, allowing the story to be told from different angles as well.

To begin with, they are the result of human action.

“The chicken we eat is unrecognizable compared to its ancestors or its wild counterparts,” explained Carys Bennett, geologist and lead author of a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

“Their size, skeletal shape, bone chemistry and genetics are different,” he clarifies.

In other words, their mere existence is evidence of humanity’s ability to manipulate natural processes.

The research therefore assigned this poultry the rank of “marker species” of the Anthropocene.

The origins of the modern broiler can be traced to the jungles of Southeast Asia, where its ancestor, the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), was first domesticated about 8,000 years ago.

For a long time, this species was valued for its meat and eggs, but it wasn’t until after World War II that it began to be bred into the short-lived, stocky creature sold in supermarkets around the world.

“Usually it takes millions of years for evolution to take place, but in this case it only took decades to get a new species of animal,” Jan Zalasiewicz, emeritus professor of paleobiology at England’s University of Leicester, told AFP.

Rise of the Anthropocene

The Working Group Anthropocene, of which he chaired for more than a decade, determined last year that the Holocene – which began 11,700 years ago with the end of the last Ice Age – gave way to the Anthropocene in the mid-20th century.

This Tuesday they presented their conclusions with Crawford Lake in Canada as an example of this change.a small freshwater reservoir that contains sediments with traces of microplastics, ash from the burning of oil and coal, or even traces of distant nuclear explosions.

But the broiler also supports that definition because of its ubiquity. Remnants of our species’ favorite source of protein can be found in every corner of the planet where there are humans.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that there are currently about 33 billion chickens worldwide.

The biomass of domestic chickens is more than three times that of all wild bird species combined.

At least 25 million are slaughtered every day, be it chicken tikka in Indian Punjab, yakitori in Japan, poulet yassa in Senegal or McDonald’s nuggets.

“Chickens are a symbol of how our biosphere has changed and is now dominated by human consumption and resource use,” said Bennett, who was a researcher at the University of Leicester before working for the NGO People for Ethical Treatment in the Animals (PETA). ) went to work. .

“The sheer number of discarded chicken bones around the world will leave a clear signal in the future geologic record,” he said.