Coprolite

fossils · dinosaurs · ancient poop

Fossilized Feces. Coprolites are the petrified poop of animals that died millions of years ago. When feces got buried under layers of sediment and minerals, they hardened into rock, preserving them as fossils for scientists to study today.

Diet Detective Clues. By examining coprolites, paleontologists can figure out what extinct creatures actually ate. Scientists can spot bone fragments, scales, or plant material inside the fossilized feces to learn about predators' hunting habits and herbivores' food choices.

Wildly Different Sizes. Coprolites can be as tiny as a few millimeters or as enormous as over 60 centimeters long, depending on the size of the animal that produced them. The biggest ones likely came from giant dinosaurs and massive marine reptiles.

Trace, Not Body. Scientists call coprolites trace fossils because they show how animals behaved rather than what their bodies looked like. They're evidence of an animal's activity frozen in stone, like finding footprints or burrows from the ancient world.

Recently Named. Even though coprolites have been around since ancient times, scientists didn't officially describe them until 1829 when William Buckland named them. Before that, people thought they were strange rocks called fossil fir cones or bezoar stones.