Scientists in a research project led by Mainz's Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) have used a new method to reconstruct the climate of the past: by analyzing earthworm excretions, they determined temperatures and precipitation during the last ice age, which took place around peaked 25,000 years ago.
They examined Ice Age dust deposits at two locations.
It contains sequences from 45,000 to 22,000 years ago, in which the excretion products of earthworms can be found throughout.
They can be used to measure how warm or how humid it was at the time of their formation.
According to this, it was much drier then than it is today, with up to 70 percent less moisture.
What is new is the knowledge gained from the study that the summer temperatures were significantly higher than previously assumed.