When you are enjoying a walk in nature, and boom, you encounter a fresh pile of dung, you might be annoyed.
But not palaeontologists.
They’re looking for fossilised animal poo – called coprolites – which are palaeontological treasure troves.
And researchers from Nelson Mandela University may have just hit the jackpot at the digging sites near Knysna.
Scientists have found both elephant and crocodile coprolites from the Pleistocene age – around 76,000 years ago.
.
It is the first ever record of a Nile crocodile coprolite; it was probably deposited underwater in a shallow lagoon, according to the researchers.
The team sent samples to university laboratories for different tests. Positive results would have aided in interpreting the environment and climate these animals were living in. Unfortunately, they had no luck as the results were indeterminate.
But there are new sites with coprolites from extinct long-horned buffalo and they are optimistic about finding fossilised plant material in those.
An animal’s poop offers unusual insight into its behaviour, according to research associate Charles Helm of NMU’s African Centre for Coastal Paleoscience and quoted in News Drum.
It also provides scientists with information such as the climate and vegetation that prevailed when the animal was alive.
Compiled by Mashudu Mabila
Pictured above: Elephant dung
Image source: The Conversation
