All articles tagged with #coprolites
A study suggests that fecal pellets from early animals helped deliver nutrients to deep ocean waters, feeding the biological pump and enabling larger, more diverse Cambrian life; by tracing fossil coprolites and the evolution of digestive systems, researchers propose a positive feedback loop where bigger animals produced bigger poop that further spurred diversification.
Researchers compile a global database of coprolites to show a Cambrian fecal revolution: as guts evolved from simple to complex, feces grew in size and variety, forming nutrient-rich pellets and carpets that sank into deeper waters, reshaping ecosystems and likely accelerating the emergence and diversification of modern marine life.
A new study argues that fossilized poop (coprolites) played a key role in the Cambrian Explosion by boosting nutrient cycling and stimulating more complex digestive systems, leading to faster diversification of life about 540 million years ago.
Researchers propose that a gradual, ocean-wide buildup of fecal matter redistributed nutrients, spurring the evolution of complex digestive systems and creating a feedback loop where more life produced more poop, contributing to the Cambrian Explosion.
A new review in Trends in Ecology & Evolution suggests that a fecal revolution—waste from expanding early animal life—could have accelerated the Cambrian explosion by increasing nutrient flux in oceans, supporting the growth of more complex guts and a burst of biodiversity. Fossilized feces (coprolites) from the Cambrian show increasing size and complexity as life diversified, indicating that waste management and nutrient recycling helped create conditions for modern ecosystems alongside other factors like oxygen and nutrients.
A Yukon permafrost study shows 700,000-year-old Arctic ground-squirrel coprolites preserving a rich environmental DNA record, enabling reconstruction of mitochondrial genomes for woolly mammoths, steppe bison and other Ice Age species (including horses, wolves, a big cat, and plants), offering a detailed snapshot of ancient Beringia and its ecosystem while noting that some signals may come from the burrow contents rather than direct predator DNA.
A 700,000-year-old DNA analysis of fossilized coprolites from the Klondike region reveals that after torpor, ancient ground squirrels ate a diverse diet including megafauna such as woolly mammoths, bison and big cats, and it uncovers a previously unknown ground-squirrel lineage along with what may be the oldest mammoth DNA.
Researchers have conducted an extensive study of over 500 fossilized dinosaur droppings, revealing that dinosaurs' dietary flexibility allowed them to dominate the Earth during the Triassic period. The analysis showed that early dinosaurs were opportunistic eaters, consuming a variety of foods like insects, fish, and plants, which helped them adapt to the changing climate and ecosystems as Pangea broke apart. This adaptability gave them an edge over more specialized species, leading to their rise as the dominant terrestrial animals.