Reader Question Robson Vilanova Island, Sao Sepe, RS
Illustrates Yasmin Ayumi
Edition Felipe van Deursen
They are fossilized feces of people or animals. The word comes from two Greek terms: copros (“faeces”) and lithos (“rocks”). In general, the coprolites form when excrement dries out in arid environments. The analysis of this material, which may date back to the Cambrian Period (about 540 million years ago), helps scientists discover facts about the author of “the work”, such as his diet, habits, the environment in which he lived, what place it occupied in the food chain, if it suffered from diseases and even how it occupied the planet.
Example: a 14,000-year-old poop found in the United States suggests that man probably arrived in America by sea, and a millennium earlier than imagined. Before, it was believed that the migratory flow would have occurred through the Bering Strait, but the find contains eggs of microorganisms that would not survive the rigorous cold in the region, which disputes this theory.
– (Yasmin Ayumi)
A thousand and one Utilities
Coprolites don’t just help scientists
Know it’s bomb
In 1842, a professor at the University of Cambridge (UK) discovered a reserve of coprolites. Great source of phosphate, they were used to produce fertilizer. The English east has become a mine of coprolites in the open. The industry declined in the 1880s, but was revived during World War I to bring phosphate into British armed forces munitions.
strange luxury
In 2010, the Swiss company Artya created a wristwatch with a dial made of coprolite. The object costs 8,300 euros. For those who prefer more discreet pieces, there are also necklaces and earrings made from fossilized dinosaur poop.
museum piece
In 1972, English archaeologists found a 23 cm long human coprolite – the largest fossilized human poo ever discovered. Analyzes showed that the author ate meat and bread and that he suffered from a severe intestinal infection. Called Lloyd Banks, the object is on display at the Jorvik Viking Center in the United Kingdom.
READ TOO:
+ How is the age of a fossil determined?
+ How do scientists define the appearance of a dinosaur?
+ How does poop form?
+ Why do some animals eat their own poop?
Contains traces of…
In addition to phosphate, calcium and organic matter, the coprolite can have:
- Other fossils, such as parasite eggs
- Molecular traces of microorganisms such as protozoa, bacteria or viruses
- Pollen
- fibers
- starch grains
- bone fragments
- Human proteins, which indicate cannibalism
Consultancy Marcelo Fernandes, professor at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UFSCar (São Paulo)
Sources Book Paleoparasitology in Brazil, by Marcelo Gonçalves, Adauto Araújo and Luiz Fernando Ferreira; Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and USP Geosciences Institute