For today’s Science Friday I wanted to talk about crap. Dinosaur crap that is. About two years ago I came across the word “coprolite” in a paper I was reading. I have a bookmark set to Dictionary.com so I tend to look up many words throughout the day (mostly because unlike most desis I am a shockingly poor speller). To my surprise “corpolite” was yet another name that humanity has provided for feces:
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cop·ro·lite n.
Fossilized excrement. [Link]
Well okay then. I am quite sure several of you will be sharing this new knowledge with someone tonight. You see, corpolite is a paleontologist’s dream. Not only can you figure out if the animal that “dropped” it was a carnivore/herbivore/omnivore, but you can also tell which plants existed at the time. An article in the Journal Science today is titled, “Dinosaur Coprolites and the Early Evolution of Grasses and Grazers,” and has Dr. Vandana Prasad of Lucknow as the first author (paid subscription required):
Silicified plant tissues (phytoliths) preserved in Late Cretaceous coprolites from India show that at least five taxa from extant grass (Poaceae) subclades were present on the Indian subcontinent during the latest Cretaceous. This taxonomic diversity suggests that crown-group Poaceae had diversified and spread in Gondwana before India became geographically isolated. Other phytoliths extracted from the coprolites (from dicotyledons, conifers, and palms) suggest that the suspected dung producers (titanosaur sauropods) fed indiscriminately on a wide range of plants. These data also make plausible the hypothesis that gondwanatherian mammals with hypsodont cheek teeth were grazers.
Translate to English please: this means that ~70 million years ago a lot of really large dinosaurs were grazing on grass all over the chunk of land that eventually broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana to become the Indian sub-continent (before it once again recombined like the present day). We can always rely on good old National Geographic to break it down for the laymen:
Coprolites are very common in the area and are often found in rocks that have been worn down by weather. Based on their common association with titanosaur bones, many of the dung fossils probably come from the massive plant-eating reptiles.The finding is the first indication that grasses evolved before the dinosaurs went extinct.
Fossil evidence had suggested that grasses evolved along with early plant-eating mammals. Hoofed animals with high-crowned teeth suitable for chewing grass first began to appear about 25 million years ago.
But the grass minerals in the Indian coprolites were much older than the hoofed mammals and were already diverse. Five different species were evident, which means that grasses likely diversified substantially before the end of the late Cretaceous.
Imagine that. Dinosaurs were doing almost the same job millions of years before the sacred cow began eating grass all over India (and tilling the fields), thus sustaining the Indus Valley Civilization. This immediately caused me to imagine a Flintstones type universe in which the dinosaurs may have gone on to become sacred, if only they had survived extinction and been domesticated. 
“this means that ~70 million years ago a lot of really large dinosaurs were grazing on grass all over the chunk of land that eventually broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana to become the Indian sub-continent (before it once again recombined like the present day). “
little plate tectonics going on there, young abhi. all the best in your………..
Is this a clever joke of sorts? 🙂
Too clever for my own good in fact 😉
Perhaps it’s more telling that we have the word coprophagy.
In a previous life I was once tasked with sawing aforementioned coprolites (and other forms of rock) into thin-slices for analysis under a microscope. It’s both a fascinating and yet psychologically revolting procedure. Technically it no longer bears any similarity to poop at all–but your mind knows it was once poop, and so you want to apply all the same reflexive taboos to it.
It is writ here first as an addendum to the Big Book of Human Nature (if you must know, I think it’s by Richard Scary): everyone who encounters a coprolite will try to smell it at some point, even knowing full well that the last trace of biologically active material decayed millions of years before that rock ever found its way into a lab.
interesting shit, Abhi.
Slaps forehead Groan……
Berry phunny DD 😉 I guess somebody had to say it !
Well I had a rather large brown lump which I thought was yet another Pyrite nodule although the shape frankly looked more like poop. The color was similar though. I hit it with a hammer expecting it to be very hard to break and quite metallic inside, but instead it shattered easily and had instead a relatively uniform interior for the first 3/4 inch and then it had multiple small voids in which were small clear or white crystals. Being what I think it is, forgive if I don’t taste them checking for salt, but they did not dissolve easily when washed under a faucet so…. What are they? Is this copralite? I don’t see anything that looks like plant residue so I thought meat eater. To contact me use mr.cin (that funny sign that means at) verizon then a period and then the word net put dino dung in the subject. thanks
I have to assume this is some kind of joke. Someone actually believes that these creatures, the vegetarian variety, roamed the earth, with no grasses to eat and that the grass “evolved” after they were extinct? No wonder they became extinct, with nothing within reach to eat, with their body’s being in such a configuration that they couldn’t eat leaves from trees.. I have seen scientific proof that showed evidence that man ( yes, walking upright), not their supposed ancestor, which was a shrew, by the way) were on the earth at the same time. I wonder how far someone is willing to stretch their imaginaton to believe this stuff.. Look up Walter Veith on your computer if you want to see some interesting facts on this topic. Happy Poop disecting.. I do it, too..