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Prairie Mounds
In the prairies of Washington , hundreds of great , flora - top mounds — nickname mima cumulation — cover the landscape painting in a apparently non - random formula . Over the years , scientist have proposed legion theories to excuse these and other mimalike mounds across the globe , the most pop of which implicate animals , particularly gophers and termites , for the pimply defect . [ Read full taradiddle ]
Spatial patterning
Michael Cramer , a biologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa , and his colleague Nichole Barger , think this vegetation spacial patterning is the culprit for not just the prairie mima mounds but other earthen hill around the public as well . In this unconscious process , industrial plant spread their origin , enfeeble surrounding areas of water and food . Meanwhile , the land in which the plant ( and their antecedent ) develop remain cushy — full of water and food . Shown here , mima mounds in the prairie of Washington . [ scan full story ]
Growing mounds
As resources get drained from areas between the vegetation patches , they build up on the plot of land , ultimately make these rich islands that are regularly spaced across a neighborhood , such as in this prairie in Washington . These mounds grow over time . [ interpret full story ]
Mima mounds
The researcher say the plants do n’t now create these mounds . Rather , they bear on the deposition of grunge and also can reduce wearing within the mounds . " If you have a patchwork of vegetation islands , they protect the dirt from erosion , while the inter - patch filth gets eroded away , " Cramer say . " This ensue in a deflation of the airfoil , which leave behind the mounds . " [ Read full story ]
Mima mound flowers
These mima mounds were named in 1841 , when the " mima " prairie was find in western Washington during the U.S. Exploring Expedition . Here , natural spring wildflower flourish in Mima Mounds National Area Preserve in Washington . [ Read full taradiddle ]
Nabkhas
These earthen mounds have been identified on every continent except Antarctica . Mounds called nabkhas or brush sand dune cast in semi - desiccate region , forming when wind deposits sand around shrubs and thump of vegetation . Here , a brushwood sand dune near Swakopmund , Namibia . [ Read full story ]
Colorado mounds
These nabkhas or brushwood sand dune are also retrieve in the United States , such as the ones shown here from Great Sand Dunes Park in Colorado . As the guts around vegetation glob gets taller , those plants collect even more sand to expand these mounds . [ Read full story ]
Trapping earth
Welwitschia plants in Namibia also make small-scale coppice dunes called nabkhas .
Heuweltjie mounds
Here , mimalike mound formed from heuweltjie land in Clanwilliam , South Africa . Several possibility have been put forth to explain mimalike mounds , with some researchers paint a picture an animal origin . For instance , scientists have said pocket Gopherus polypemus may be the creators of mounds in the United States , while termites are surmise as creating the heuweltjies ' pile of South Africa along with the murundus of Brazil . [ Read full narration ]
Rock from mound
One outcome with the faunal theory for mimalike mounds has to do with the rocks found within these mound . Often , those stone are too large for any of the mima suspects to have channel there . For representative , here a 1.6 - invertebrate foot ( 0.5 cadence ) rock found bury in hewuweltjie , which is n’t reproducible with termite . [ Read full story ]
