My favorite discovery about Amazon civilization is that the incidence of human-edible fruit trees is much higher in any area near navigable water. They were modifying the forest to be more supportive of humans.
Amazing how many areas of humanities, physical sciences and informatics and engineering were required to achieve this result. Showcases the range and depth of human knowledge perfectly.
How do the LIDARs work for this kind of thing? I always imagined that the light used wouldn't be able to penetrate objects that are opaque in the visible light spectrum.
Just finished watching "Ancient Apocalypse" on Netflix. They go over this kind of discovery<p>It's quite speculative, but also really fascinating. Even if what they claim is not completely right, it definitely shows how the current accepted understanding of the history of the Americas needs an overhaul and a lot more research<p>PS: if you like this stuff, also check out the movie "The Lost City of Z"