Fossilised poop of dinosaur ancestor shows new bettle species

The story: Researchers discovered a 230-million-year-old beetle species by scanning a specimen of fossilised feces, or coprolites in Poland. Researche

Fossilised poop of dinosaur ancestor shows new bettle species

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• The story: Researchers discovered a 230-million-year-old beetle species by scanning a specimen of fossilised feces, or coprolites in Poland. Researchers claimed the fossils were the first ones described from a coprolite. Coprolites were largely omitted until now and just trashed.
• Details: Named Triamyxa coprolithica, the beetle was found in the poop of Silesaurus opolensis, a relatively small dinosaur ancestor that lived in Poland approximately 230 million years ago. It was over two meters long including a long tail and neck, weighed perhaps between 15 and 20 kilos, and was a slender agile animal. Although it ingested numerous individuals of Triamyxa, the beetle was likely too small to have been the only targeted prey. Instead, the beetle likely lived in the environment where Silesaurus was foraging and got ingested along with bigger insects and other food items.
• Scanning: The coprolite was scanned using a special technique called synchrotron microtomography that works on the same principle as the CT machines in hospitals. It scans the density of the material the X-rays go through, and if it finds a good contrast between the density of the object inside of the coprolite (a beetle in our case) and of the coprolite ‘surrounding material’, it can digitally remove the coprolite around the beetle and get the 3D model of the beetle.
• Knowledge centre:

1. Dinosaurs - These were a diverse group of reptiles and the dominant terrestrial life form on Earth during the Mesozoic Era, about 245 million years ago. Dinosaurs went into decline near the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 66 million years ago. They roamed the Earth worldwide for nearly 180 million years, before dying out. One of their lineage evolved into birds about 155 million years ago. The decline of dinosaurs was most likely caused by many different factors, most likely an asteroid crash into the Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago, causing enough terrestrial and asteroid material to be ejected into the atmosphere that sunlight was possibly blocked for several years. This would have severely impacted plant life and subsequently brought about the end of most dinosaurs.  [dinosaur - Greek words deinos (“terrible” or “fearfully great”) and sauros (“reptile” or “lizard”)]
2. Fossils - A fossil is physical evidence of a prehistoric plant or animal. This may be their preserved remains or other traces, such as marks they made in the ground while they were alive. Fossilised remains - including fossil bones and teeth - are known as body fossils. Fossilised shells are also body fossils. Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the past. Fossils are important evidence for evolution because they show that life on earth was once different from life found on earth today. Fossils are rare because most remains are consumed or destroyed soon after death. Even if bones are buried, they then must remain buried and be replaced with minerals. If an animal is frozen like the baby mammoth mentioned above, again the animal must remain undisturbed for many years before found. 

 

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