Piles of animal dung reveal the location of an ancient Arabian oasis

By Jake Buehler

The piles of faeces made by stone hyraxes clasp clues to our ain past

Natalia Kuzmina / Alamy

Fossilised piles of faeces, called middens, person revealed that a godforsaken vale successful Yemen was erstwhile a tropical oasis, which may person lasted successful the adust portion due to the fact that of quality onshore absorption practices.

Today, Wadi Sana is simply a dry, rocky desert. We knew that betwixt 11,000 and 5000 years ago, the Arabian peninsula and Sahara godforsaken were wetter than they are now, and immoderate lake-bed deposits suggested that grasslands and trees whitethorn have grown elsewhere successful the interior …