You Can Wear It
Yeah, there’s a whole group of artists that create jewelry from coprolite (fossilized poop). The diets of dinosaurs, or other prehistoric animals, can be seen by the coloring of the fossilized poop, and some samples actually look more like gems. A herbivorous diet will show a richer diversity of colors—greens, oranges, etc. Being fossilized, you can buy polished and prepared pieces of coprolite as pendants, earrings, and I’m sure cuff links. Talk about a conversation starter!
The Longest Dinosaur Turd
Found in Washington state in 2012, this particular find is credited as being the longest prehistoric piece of fossilized poop ever discovered. Measuring in at a staggering unbroken 3 feet, 4 inches, this dinosaur dropping was expected to win about $10,000 at auction! Believe it or not, dinosaur excrement is in high demand and people are willing to dish out the big bucks for a piece of prehistoric poop. No one has any idea what creature dropped such an impressive fossilized poop, but if I could get $10,000 for it, I’m not sure it would make much difference.
Oldest In The World
No surprise here: the oldest fossilized poop is found in the oceans. Marine creatures have been taking dumps for billions of years. What is really nuts about these finds is that the poop is the oldest known evidence of multicellular life forms! The bodily fossils of marine life may not have survived, but they certainly left their mark.
Everybody Goes
The largest haul of human crap was found in Texas. Found in the Hinds Caves, the depository holds a lot of cool information about the life of ancient hunter-gatherers. Not only have the caves been found to house ancient tools like netting, but they had their own, um, privacy corner. Not only is the human fossilized poop a huge find when it comes to life in the Archaic period, but it could make any immature person giggle.
Best Source Of DNA
Talk about starting your day off right! Nothing is better for studying ancient DNA that fossilized poop. In fact, the finding of human coprolite has helped reveal the migratory patterns of ancient humans! And, the idea of extracting intact dinosaur DNA from fossilized poop is more likely than any other method. Maybe they should take a piece from the longest turd sold at auction! I bet they would discover a pretty impressive beast.
