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How long will traces of our civilisation last?

Aug 29, 2025
Join Professor Sarah Gabbott from the University of Leicester, a leading paleontologist and co-author of 'Discarded,' as she explores the lasting legacy of human civilization. She discusses how 'technofossils'—the enduring marks we leave behind—will be detectable for millions of years. The conversation dives into the Silurian Hypothesis, pondering whether earlier advanced species left any trace at all. Plus, listeners discover the rare art of fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coast and how our everyday pollution uniquely shapes Earth's future geological record.
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INSIGHT

Fossil Record Is Extremely Sparse

  • Fossils form for only a tiny fraction of organisms, so brief civilizations leave almost no fossil record.
  • Adam Frank argues a 10,000-year technological society is geologically ephemeral and unlikely to fossilize.
INSIGHT

Climate Signals Will Be Preserved In Rock

  • Human-driven changes to strata and isotopes will leave long-lived geological signatures.
  • Adam Frank says oxygen and carbon isotope shifts from our activity could be readable hundreds of millions of years from now.
ANECDOTE

Fossil Hunt At Lyme Regis

  • Sam Baker visits Lyme Regis and fossil-hunts with museum curator Paul Davis to learn preservation basics.
  • They explain permineralisation and why burial in fine sediment and low-oxygen seabeds best preserve remains.
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