Laura is a science news writer, covering a wide variety of subjects, but she is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life. Laura is a proud former resident of the New Jersey shore, a competitive swimmer, and a fierce defender of the Oxford comma.
ArticleBody:While it is not quite as big as a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, fossilized poop can help paleontologists recreate lost worlds. It can tell scientists what extinct animals like dinosaurs ate, but more importantly the role that they played in their environment. Now, some 200-million-year old fecal and vomit samples are helping scientists recreate how these giants became the kings of a prehistoric ecosystem. The findings are detailed in a study published November 27 in the journal Nature.
Qvarnström et al, Nature, 2024. These specimens were uncovered in present day Poland and date back to the Late Triassic and early Jurassic. During this era, Earth’s land was locked into one giant super continent called Pangea. When the landmass began to break apart, internal seaways brought some more moisture and humidity to a previously dry climate.
Marcin Ambrozik. “I think that dinosaurs felt good in this world, they wandered among the floodplains of large rivers, looking for the best places to feed,” says Niedzwiedzki. “Probably from time to time there were dramas, when herds of herbivores were attacked by predators. Their numerous three-toed, with large claw imprints, 40 cm long tracks of predators are found.” Some of the poop fossils contained the remains of fish, insects, larger animals, and plants.
Gerard Gierlinski “In one of the coprolites we found incredibly preserved plant remains, they are preserved with details like cells or various structures in a leaf,” says Niedzwiedzki. “They passed through the digestive tract of dinosaurs, probably thanks to bacteria they were well preserved.” The herbivore droppings also had traces of charcoal. The team believes that the sauropods ate the charcoal to detoxify stomach contents, since ferns can be toxic to herbivores.
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