Florida Everglades built on ancient trash heap

Translation: human garbage was good for the ecology.

The Everglades feature tree islands spattered throughout the swampland. The tree islands provide habitat for birds, alligators, big cats and aquatic life.

But new research suggests ancient humans may have inadvertently created the ecological wonder by using it as a dumping ground.

"This goes to show that human disturbance in the environment doesn't always have a negative consequence," says Gail Chmura, a paleoecologist at McGill University and one of the authors of the study.