A new study credits llama poop with paving the way for the Incan Empire. According to researcher Alex Chepstow-Lusty, "The widespread shift to agriculture and societal development was only possible with this extra ingredient – organic fertilisers on a vast scale":
[Andean agriculture specialist Graham Thiele] points out that maize could be stored for much longer than other local foods, and also provided much more energy. "It could be stored, and traded and moved over long distances," he says, making it ideal for sustaining an empire. It took almost 2 millennia for the Incas, the greatest of the maize-based societies, to reach their peak. But without the muck-and-maize revolution, says Chepstow-Lusty, they would never have got there.
(Photo: By Matt Cardy/Getty Images.)
The Dish 