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Islands off the coast of Peru are home to millions of seabirds. Their droppings were an important fertiliser for Indigenous people in the Andes. Jo Osborn

How bird poo fuelled the rise of Peru’s powerful Chincha Kingdom

In new research, biochemical analyses align with imagery and historical sources to show how the pre-Inca Chincha society turned guano into a source of power.
A late 15th-century French version of a scientific study written by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 170, fol. 11r.

Bird sex fascinated medieval thinkers as much as people today

Modern researchers know about the cuckoo’s cross-species brood parasitism – but one Roman emperor observed this more than 700 years ago.

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