STORRS, CONNECTICUT—Based on an announcement launched by the Public Library of Science, hunter-gatherers dwelling at Abu Hureyra, Syria, some 12,800 to 12,300 years in the past could have stored small numbers of animals close to their dwellings. Alexia Smith of the College of Connecticut and her colleagues regarded for dung spherulites, or tiny clumps of calcium carbonate present in animal dung, in soil samples from the location. The research means that these hunter-gatherers burned dung as gasoline, and should have stored sheep near residence. By the Neolithic interval, the residents of Abu Hureyra additionally used dung to organize plaster flooring for his or her dwellings. A drop within the ranges of spherulites may point out that animals have been stored farther away from the dwellings, maybe as a result of the herds had grown. Learn the unique scholarly article about this analysis in PLOS ONE. To examine a research of Africa’s first pastoralists, go to “Herding Genes in Africa.”