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September 12, 2014
Q. In a word, what's been the story of the “early human turd”?
A. Infections. Studying fossilized excrement, archaeologists found that since ancient times, 10,000 B.C.-5,000 B.C., rates of whipworm and roundworm infections have exploded around Europe. This coincided with the transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers and the domestication of animals, allowing tapeworms and other parasites to flourish, reports Kate Ravilious in New Scientist magazine. Then along came New World farmers, whose more sanitary conditions and lifestyles were quite different from the Europeans, and most important, these farmers apparently didn't spread excrement over the fields.
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