Evaluating chloroplast DNA in prehistoric Texas coprolites: medicinal,dietary, or ambient ancient DNA?

Molecular analysis of coprolites from Hinds Cave, Texas recovered chloroplast DNA sequences. The sequences were interpreted as evidence of diet. We analyzed 19 Hinds Cave coprolites to evaluate the potential sources of the chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and compared our results to previous studies. This review shows that some cpDNA sequences could be from well-known prehistoric plants foods. Some other sequences could have come from ambient plant material in the guts of small animals eaten by humans in antiquity. Using pollen concentration analysis, we identify sources of ambient plant material which could have been inhaled or imbibed. It is even possible that cpDNA sequences are from proplastids within ambient pollen grains themselves. However, three sequence types cannot be explained as resulting from only dietary or ambient sources. We suggest instead that these might be from medicinal or hallucinogenic plants. We compared these three sequences to existing sequences in the GenBank. We found that these sequences are 100% matches for Rhamnus, Fouquieria, and Solanum.     

Local-scale turnpike roads in nineteenth-century Kentucky

This essay will examine, through a Kentucky case study, the process whereby states, county-level localities, and individuals undertook for themselves the responsibility for internal improvements, especially the construction of comprehensive road networks in the nineteenth century. Before the Kentucky legislature authorized state-funded road construction in the twentieth century, the state's best roads were a few toll turnpikes. Following other eastern states, Kentucky approved turnpike construction charters and subscribed to turnpike stock to underwrite construction. State statutes, based upon directives from trained engineers hired by the Board of Internal Improvement, required that turnpike construction follow complex procedures. A change in the state constitution in 1850 forced the state to withdraw from turnpike road investment and road construction oversight and finance devolved to counties and private investors. Local county road networks were largely the product of neighborhood turnpike companies chartered by the state. Primary documents record the local road-building process for a five-mile turnpike in a Bourbon County. With little direction or assistance from state engineers, the neighborhood residents, led by farmer John W. Jones, surveyed a route, arranged for right-of-way access through adjacent farms, hired Irish turnpike construction crews, built a tollhouse, and collected tolls. Formal state law and engineering directives became attenuated as amateur turnpike builders constructed a simplified version of the state's ideal road.