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      The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene.

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          Abstract

          Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth. Vigorous debate continues about whether this warrants recognition as a new geologic time unit known as the Anthropocene. We review anthropogenic markers of functional changes in the Earth system through the stratigraphic record. The appearance of manufactured materials in sediments, including aluminum, plastics, and concrete, coincides with global spikes in fallout radionuclides and particulates from fossil fuel combustion. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles have been substantially modified over the past century. Rates of sea-level rise and the extent of human perturbation of the climate system exceed Late Holocene changes. Biotic changes include species invasions worldwide and accelerating rates of extinction. These combined signals render the Anthropocene stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene and earlier epochs.

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          Most cited references34

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          The Anthropogenic Greenhouse Era Began Thousands of Years Ago

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            Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia.

            In 1967 the Kibish Formation in southern Ethiopia yielded hominid cranial remains identified as early anatomically modern humans, assigned to Homo sapiens. However, the provenance and age of the fossils have been much debated. Here we confirm that the Omo I and Omo II hominid fossils are from similar stratigraphic levels in Member I of the Kibish Formation, despite the view that Omo I is more modern in appearance than Omo II. 40Ar/39Ar ages on feldspar crystals from pumice clasts within a tuff in Member I below the hominid levels place an older limit of 198 +/- 14 kyr (weighted mean age 196 +/- 2 kyr) on the hominids. A younger age limit of 104 +/- 7 kyr is provided by feldspars from pumice clasts in a Member III tuff. Geological evidence indicates rapid deposition of each member of the Kibish Formation. Isotopic ages on the Kibish Formation correspond to ages of Mediterranean sapropels, which reflect increased flow of the Nile River, and necessarily increased flow of the Omo River. Thus the 40Ar/39Ar age measurements, together with the sapropel correlations, indicate that the hominid fossils have an age close to the older limit. Our preferred estimate of the age of the Kibish hominids is 195 +/- 5 kyr, making them the earliest well-dated anatomically modern humans yet described.
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              Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way: HYDE 3.1

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Science
                Science (New York, N.Y.)
                1095-9203
                0036-8075
                Jan 8 2016
                : 351
                : 6269
                Affiliations
                [1 ] British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK.
                [2 ] Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
                [3 ] Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER, UK.
                [4 ] Department of Integrative Biology, Museum of Paleontology, and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
                [5 ] Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière, Université de Caen Normandie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 24 Rue des Tilleuls, F-14000 Caen, France.
                [6 ] Geochemistry and the Environment Division, Institute of Chemistry, Jan Kochanowski University, 15G Świętokrzyska Street, 25-406 Kielce, Poland.
                [7 ] Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Apartado 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain.
                [8 ] School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
                [9 ] Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
                [10 ] Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (CNRS, Centre National d'Études Spatiales, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université Paul Sabatier), 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France.
                [11 ] Department of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Malteserstraße 74-100/D, 12249 Berlin, Germany.
                [12 ] Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
                [13 ] Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Box 90233, Durham, NC 27516, USA.
                [14 ] The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
                [15 ] Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder, Box 545, Boulder, CO 80309-0545, USA.
                [16 ] Marine Affairs and Law of the Sea Programme, The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Lysaker, Norway.
                [17 ] Department of Geodynamics and Sedimentology, University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
                [18 ] State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
                [19 ] Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement, Chemin Eugène Rigot 2, 1211 Genève 11, Switzerland.
                [20 ] Department of Geology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
                [21 ] Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
                [22 ] Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada.
                Article
                351/6269/aad2622
                10.1126/science.aad2622
                26744408
                5dccf710-a445-46bc-b0f2-1aabb36f4515
                Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
                History

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