Ancient baby boom holds a lesson in over-population
June 30, 2014
By Eric Sorensen, WSU science writer
PULLMAN, Wash.?Washington State University researchers have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long ?growth blip? among southwestern Native Americans between 500 and 1300 A.D.
It was a time when the early features of civilization?including farming and food storage?had matured to where birth rates likely ?exceeded the highest in the world today,? the researchers write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A crash followed, said Tim Kohler, WSU Regents professor of anthropology, offering a warning sign to the modern world about the dangers of overpopulation.
?We can learn lessons from these people,? said Kohler, who coauthored the paper with graduate student Kelsey Reese...
