Dinosaurs, like all animals, would have wanted to expel waste. Typically items of dinosaur faeces become fossils, which we will discover immediately. These are known as coprolites. Some palaeontologists concentrate on learning coprolites and use them to grasp what meals dinosaurs ate, and the way they match into bigger meals chains.
Probably the most well-known dinosaur coprolite is a gigantic specimen present in Late Cretaceous rocks in Canada. At over 30cm lengthy and greater than two litres in quantity, this large piece of scat may solely have been produced by the biggest predator within the ecosystem: Tyrannosaurus rex.
Though a T. rex poo in itself is fascinating (or maybe disgusting, relying in your sensibilities), this fossil can be essential. It’s filled with chunks of bone, which inform us that T. rex may chew so laborious that it crushed the bones of its prey – a extremely uncommon manner of consuming with no apparent trendy equal.
Different dinosaur coprolites have been discovered with crops inside, and one even accommodates decomposing wooden – an indication that the dinosaur was supplementing its vitamin with fungi and bugs that feed on rotting logs.
Learn extra:
- Did dinosaurs fart?
- How do dinosaur footprints get fossilised?
- Would the dinosaurs have eaten us if we had been alive on the identical time?
- How did dinosaurs mate?
Requested by: Sarah Stone, Chipping Norton
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