In the last 2000 years, a group of archaeologists have collected and studied coprolites – poop – and dinosaur vomit, millions of years old, from the country that is now called Poland. The team has now published their findings, revealing hitherto unknown aspects of the relationship between large reptiles and their habitats.
When dinosaurs lived, they exploded and sometimes died. In these body fluids (and solids) extinct reptiles left evidence of their diet, and their habitats. The team studied the dinosaur deposits using synchrotron imaging, which revealed the hidden contents of the fossil remains. The team discovered what the animals ate, and painted a picture of Pangea between 230 million years ago and 200 million years ago, as the Triassic Period gave way to the Jurassic. The team’s results were printed today in Nature.
“Our findings show that the early dominance of dinosaurs was not a straightforward process but a complex evolution based on environmental opportunities and competition with other animals,” said Martin Qvarnström, researcher at Uppsala University and co-author of the study. email to Gizmodo. “This also changes our understanding of how dinosaurs evolved and rose to prominence in the dynamic and competitive world of the Triassic.”
About 230 million years ago, Poland was part of the supercontinent Pangea. Dinosaurs, plants, fish, insects, and other creatures lived along the shores of the lake. There, the species left traces of their presence – in footprints and bite marks and in chewed material and crushed bones that could have been removed or exhumed by the dinosaurs.
“25 years ago I would never have dreamed that I would be traveling with kilograms of dinosaur feces to the synchrotron in Grenoble, and using this advanced instrument to study the Triassic and Jurassic dinosaurs of Poland,” said Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki, a researcher at Uppsala University. is the study’s lead author, in an email to Gizmodo. “We were excited as the children opened Christmas presents every time they found a coprolite.”
The team took hundreds of coprolite samples to the synchrotron to show how they penetrate—mainly in search of undigested food. Coprolites of large herbivores, to be honest, surprised the team. The coprolites contained ferns and other plants, as well as charcoal. The team suggested that the animals may have eaten the charcoal to protect themselves from toxins that may have been found in the fern.
“First, we were able to see for the first time what these early dinosaurs ate, secondly, what they ate from the plants that grew in the Triassic and Jurassic ecosystems, and thirdly, which is very interesting, among these remains of plants found in coprolite. The mass was large whose bones are not found in the places where we found the coprolites,” said Niedźwiedzki. “It is possible that ma“The dinosaur was fed in a different place than where we found their dead feces.”
The team believes that information may still be hidden in the coprolites; thankfully, synchrotron imaging is non-invasive, so researchers can go back for seconds. In addition to re-examining the coprolites, there is a site from the early Jurassic that Niedźwiedzki said “is a real treasure.”
“To date we have dug up several thousand dinosaur tracks,” he said. “We have a lot to do in the next 25 years.”
The dinosaurs were wiped out 66 million years ago, when an asteroid—and maybe two– to be crushed into the earth, to be pushed up and a mega tsunami it is dust, soot, and sulfur they extinguished the Sun. But the extinction of the dinosaurs happened about 150 million years after the deep minutes taken in coprolites that have recently been questioned.
In other words, there are still millions of years of history that can be covered in poop and dinosaur droppings. It will take patience, luck, and a little time with the synchrotron, but we can learn a lot about the days of the dinosaurs through their resistance.
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