Mima Mound Mystery Solved

[Still Waters]

A new twist on an old mystery may finally settle the debate over the origin of Mima mounds, which bulge out of the ground like enormous, grass-covered bubble wrap.

http://www.livescien...-explained.html

[pallidin]

OK, good theory I guess, but where are the skeletons or other evidence of gopher habitation?

[Winter Summer]

Pallidin, you beat me to it. I was wondering the same as I read the article. I was also under the impression that burrowing animals had been ruled out decades ago.

[Eldorado]

Well, to be fair it's the article writer and not the soil scientist who says the mystery has been solved.

From article: Though the study isn't proof that gophers create Mima mounds, it does show that it's possible, said Ronald Sletten, a soil scientist at the University of Washington who has studied the state's Mima mounds.

"We don't have a smoking gun, but it's a very nice paper and it lends support to the hypothesis that it's feasible for gophers to move the amount of material to [make] the size and shape of the mounds that are there," Sletten said.

[minera]

maybe they built the pyramids too, lol