Just like us, dinosaurs and other extinct creatures had to go to the bathroom sometimes. There are numerous instances of preserved “excreta” in the fossil record, which have provided unique information about the diets and habits of these animals. Below are the 5 most interesting (and maybe slight disgusting) preserved “guts” of ancient animals.
“King-sized” theropod coprolite
Coprolite is just a fancy word for a fossilized poop. But this is not just any poop. In 1998, world coprolite expert Karen Chin published a study on an enormous specimen from Canada. This bone fragment-filled coprolite is so large in size (44 cm long, 13 cm high, and 16 cm wide) that it most surely is from a giant carnivore. In this area, Tyrannosaurus rex reigned supreme, so this likely represents the remains of a T. rex’s dinner—which appears to have been other young dinosaurs.
First fossil ambergris
Ambergris is a rare substance that was highly valued in the past for making expensive perfumes. But what is it exactly? Well, ambergris is a solid waxy substance that is produced in the digestive tracts of whales. It can be found floating on the surface of the sea but is so valuable because it needs to float through the ocean, land on shore, and then be discovered. In 2013, Angela Baldanza and colleagues found what appeared to be the first ever record of fossilized ambergris in central Italy. Chemical analysis shows the presence of organic matter from digestive tracts and mineralized squid beaks, which can be found in modern ambergris specimens.
Prehistoric puke
While it is still unknown who exactly produced this “gastric pellet”, it was definitely something that ate small lizards. A team of researchers recently published a paper in PLOS ONE about this specimen, that for years had been thought to be made up of pterosaur bones. Instead, they are actually terrestrial reptile bones, but it is still a gastric pellet (essentially a pile of throw up). Owls are some of the more famous producers of today’s gastric pellets. They can be distinguished from coprolites because the bones in the pellet are not as processed as they haven’t been run through the digestive tract.
Parasites in dinosaur poop
Imagine how shocked paleontologists were when they examined 100 million year old dinosaur poop and noticed tiny remains of parasites. It makes sense that dinosaurs were also bugged by parasites, but to actually find them is impressive. In 2006, George Poinar Jr. and A.J. Boucot wrote about the oldest instance of a parasitic infestation in a terrestrial animal after finding protozoan cysts in Early Cretaceous coprolites from Belgium. They also found eggs from nematodes in the feces. There is no way to say exactly how these parasites impacted the lives of dinosaurs, but if the effect of these parasites in modern organisms is any indication, the little creatures could have made life very uncomfortable for some mighty meat-eating predators.
Urination information
It makes sense that feces and vomit can fossilze, but urine? In 2015, P.R.F Souto and M.A. Fernandes published some of the first trace fossils that can be associated with dinosaur urination behavior. Found in Brazil, these "urolite excavations" are areas of sand that have been deformed from jets of urine. Also found in these same sandstones are multiple types of dinosaur footprints, so the animals obviously used this area a lot. Now, lucky paleontologists can study the fluid physics of dinosaur wee.
