Overview

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Acanthochronology is the interdisciplinary study of cactus spines or Euphorbia thorns grown in time ordered sequence (i.e. in series). Physical, morphological or chemical characteristics and information about the relative order or absolute age of the spines or thorns is used to study past climate or plant physiology. For example, columnar cactus spines grow from the apex of the plant. After several weeks the spines stop growing and have been moved to the side of the stem. The old spines remain in place for decades as new spines are created at the continually growing apex. The result is that along each external rib of the cactus is a series of spines arranged in the order they grew in - the oldest spines are at the bottom and the youngest spines are at the top. These spines can be dated using bomb-spike Carbon-14 and isotopes of carbon (Carbon-13) and oxygen (Oxygen-18) may be used to infer past climate (e.g. precipitation or temperature) or plant physiology (e.g. photosynthetic processes).

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