The <i>Homines</i> Fossilization: Brief Review of Anthropocene

Abstract

This article is an insight into our lifetime and the enduring capacity of the planet — especially regarding water and space, in face of the Homines population growth. This is and will be recorded in the geological time: once preserved as human fossils, we will be part of a chapter in Earth’s history. A brief taphonomic chronology is presented, from the emergence of humans to the domination of the environment and supremacy over other species, and also a concern on how much planet Earth can bear Homines neglects. The objective of this review is to show that the strata that contain human fossils change during the Anthropocene not only the human body but also its tools, resulting from its development. Four stages were identified as taphonomic phases: the first wave, when organic Homines fossils were preserved only with materials in natura , including natural artefacts. The second fossilization phase has occurred and still occurs with the urban Homines , a product of the proliferation of cities, including anthropogenic waste and diseases. The technology that we master today also belongs to our taphonomy: hydrocarbons, metals, plastic, radioactive elements — all fossilize together with the industrial Homines , representing the third fossilization phase, which is very close to the fourth fossilization phase, where our enlightened intelligence buries the technological Homines together with his world of digital waste and new viruses. How will we fossilize the future? This question makes us think about the behavior we assume today — who or what will go to the grave with us, which geological/environmental response will stop superpopulation, which extinction event will hold human proliferation? Which will be the mineral, human and waste components of our subsequent strata? How much water and space can we still use without causing a global environmental collapse?