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Showing results for tags 'Coprolites'.
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From the album: Dinosaurs
A chunk and a slice of dinosaur coprolites bought at a nearby rock store. Species, location, and age unknown. Despite being what they are, they both have a nice red coloring. -
Was curious to see what had washed up on the beach. Weather was dominated by east winds and usually north winds bring in the most stuff. From my finds it appears that a lot of sand was deposited covering, sadly, most shark teeth. Did find several shrimp(?) coprolite "burrows" (which I had not seen much until my previous trip?) @Plax @Carl @GeschWhat Found only four shark teeth- - a medium Mako, a rootless Hemipristis, a sand tiger and a broken sand tiger (initially thought it was something more interesting, the break was polished smooth by the sand). Found my second piece of skate plate, with two teeth, but not as pretty as the first), and lots of small "whale bone". Pottery shards as well, but shells for the most part were sand covered with the presumptive teeth. Nice weather before the rains (and south winds which don't deposit much).
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A friend of mine(yes, it really is a friend, not just me lol)apparently got these in a box of stuff, and they were labeled as being from mosasaurs. He asked if they were coprolites, but i don't know exactly how they were described. I told him no, I don't think any coprolites would be so smooth, even, and without any imperfections(I'm sure there are some like that out there, but that must be pretty rare. A random group of coprolites aren't going to all be like that, I'd imagine). I told him I don't really know and that id ask, but my best guess would be either gastroliths, or nodules. I don't think mosasaurs have gastroliths, but plesiosaurs do, and the ID of mosasaur seems bunk anyway, no matter what they are. As far as nodules, I don't know if nodules are found in that kind of site, so yeah......does anyone have any idea? Oh yeah, they're from Khouribga, Morocco.
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ok not quite sure what these are find one every now and then...they have an odd coating dropped a couple in the acid bath for a few minutes and looked at them through a microscopic camera and found all sorts of little goodies... so wondering could these be some type of poo??.....fossilized feces. Coprolites...??. ..fish? turtle? lizard?...??
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Attached pictures are of a stone I discovered in our garden after receiving a load of landscape rock, believe they cam from Colorado. This particular stone is shaped like a road apple left by a horse. It is domed with a flat side like, as I said, a road apple left by a horse. Some of the surfaces are similar to a hard gray shell; while those areas where the shell has broken away are loosely packed red, black and clear crystalyn material that crumbles easily from the stone with light touch of the finger. Any ideas?
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Last weekend I used my free time to visit two locations in the area of Solnhofen. Solnhofen is quite a famous fossil location, so many of you will probably know it. During the Late Jurassic, this area was an archipelago at the edge of the Tethys Sea and it preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms. The most famous fossil from there is the Archaeopteryx. At the beginning I was very unsure if it really make sense to visit that location, because I often heard bad things like that its very hard to find something there . And I have to say that it was indeed very hard to find something but nonetheless I found a few fossils and it was much fun. I was firstly for about 3 hours in the visitor quarry Blumenberg. Here is the quarry: It makes sense to bring a shovel with you because you firstly have to put away all the debris before you can extract larger plates. The most common fossil there is the crinoid Saccocoma. Here are some examples: (about 2 cm big) Another very common fossil are coprolites from fishes/ammonites. They are called Lumbricaria: (3-4 cm long)
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Found in Poland. Weight 30kg /66 lb
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Possible Coprolite from Upper Cretaceous, Monmouth County, N.J.
Jeffrey P posted a topic in Fossil ID
Found what looks like a coprolite attached to a piece of matrix. It was found in Willow Brook this AM. Willow Brook contains exposures of Upper Cretaceous formations. It is located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Can anyone confirm whether this is a coprolite or not and if so what might have made it. I've included views of both sides. Thank you..thumb.JPG.9c74f02f2fc8da1e6ea6313ac537b0f2.JPG)
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This question just crossed my mind today, seemingly without provocation: What are the oldest known coprolites in the fossil record, whether from vertebrates or invertebrates? I know of Paleozoic coprolites, but is there any evidence of coprolites before that, perhaps from the Ediacaran? And if there are no pre-Cambrian coprolites recorded, what are the oldest known from the Paleozoic? I have a feeling that @GeschWhat might know a thing or two about this subject since, after all, she is the official Queen of Poopiness on TFF.
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If you aren’t used to seeing marine coprolites, it is very easy to miss them as you search marine matrix. That is one of the reasons for this post. Also I posted these for @GeschWhat. Sometimes it can be very difficult to distinguish coprolites from small concretions or other geologic specimens. If in doubt pull them out and let a coprolite researcher make the determination. The below coprolites came from matrix (about 1 gallon) from the Egem Quarry in Belgium: The matrix contained a large number of shark and ray teeth. Sharks and rays produce spiral and scroll coprolites. I didn’t find any scroll coprolites. However, scroll coprolites tend to be fairly large and may be in the fauna but were too large for the matrix size that I was searching. I did find a few spiral coprolites. See the below 15 mm specimen: However the vast majority of coprolites looked to be from bony fish, with no evidence of spiraling and lots of fish bone inclusions. See the two pieces (15 mm and 5 mm) of coprolites below with very visible inclusions: Other examples (9 mm, 9 mm, and 15 mm) of bony fish coprolites (note the middle coprolite may have worn spiraling but I can't tell for sure) : Finding mostly bony fish coprolites was not surprising considering the number of bony fish teeth, jaws, vertebrae and especially otoliths also contained in the matrix. The below picture shows only the nicest otoliths (in total I found at least 3 times this number) from the matrix: Continued in the next reply Marco Sr.
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/apr/04/on-fossil-poo-and-picky-eaters-a-new-study-sheds-light-on-new-zealands-past-ecosystem
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From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Coprolites SITE LOCATION: Pungo River or Yorktown Formation, Aurora, Beaufort Co., North Carolina, USA TIME PERIOD: Miocene age (5.3-23 Million Years Ago) Data: A coprolite is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words (kopros, meaning "dung") and (lithos, meaning "stone"). They were first described by William Buckland in 1829. Prior to this they were known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoar stones". They serve a valuable purpose in paleontology because they provide direct evidence of the predation and diet of extinct organisms. Coprolites may range in size from a few millimetres to over 60 centimetres. Coprolites, distinct from paleofaeces, are fossilized animal dung. Like other fossils, coprolites have had much of their original composition replaced by mineral deposits such as silicates and calcium carbonates. Paleofaeces, on the other hand, retain much of their original organic composition and can be reconstituted to determine their original chemical properties, though in practice the term coprolite is also used for ancient human faecal material in archaeological contexts. In the same context, there are the urolites, erosions caused by evacuation of liquid wastes and nonliquid urinary secretions. -
Shark, ray, and bony fish coprolites from an early Eocene marine site in Virginia
MarcoSr posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Below are shark, ray, and bony fish coprolites from three trips from matrix that I collected from an early Eocene marine site in Virginia awhile back. I would find around 1,000+ coprolites from eight 5 gallon buckets of formation (40 gallons) per trip; so they were pretty common at the site. A good number are very small only a few millimeters to 10 millimeters. Lots of them have fish bone inclusions. I’m finishing searching the matrix (two trips worth left) that I collected from this site. I’ve donated thousands of these coprolites to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. Marco Sr.
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When I was just looking at my croc coprolite specimens from the marine Paleocene Aquia Formation of Liverpool Point Maryland I noticed this interesting 3.75 inch by 2 inch specimen. I hadn’t noticed before that it contains furrows. See the second picture which I darkened a bit to try to better show the furrows. They are much more obvious when looking at the specimen itself. I learned about furrows from Lori’s post below. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/78589-possible-amphibian-jawmaxillary-with-teeth-in-coprolite/&tab=comments#comment-829344 I’ve now seen furrows in several croc coprolite specimens from the Paleocene of Maryland and the Eocene of Virginia. Crocs have extremely strong stomach acid. So strong that I’ve read in several papers that captive crocs fed a diet of chickens and/or rodents have no bones in their coprolites. Interestingly their coprolites do show feather and hair traces. Anyone else have coprolites with furrows? Lori @GeschWhat I know you do. Please post some pictures. Paleocene coprolite with furrows from Maryland: Two Eocene coprolites with furrows from Virginia: Marco Sr.
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Cretaceous Shark Coprolite from Monmouth County, New Jersey
Jeffrey P posted a gallery image in Member Collections
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From the album: Cretaceous
Shark Coprolite Upper Cretaceous Basal Navesink Formation Monmouth Group Bayonet Farm Holmdel, New Jersey-
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Plant-eating Dinosaurs Consumed Crustaceans - Cretaceous, Utah
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Dinosaur dung reveals giant plant-eaters ate meat By Ben Guarino, Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2017 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/09/22/dinosaur-dung-reveals-giant-plant-eaters-ate-meat/ 'Vegetarian' Dinos Made Exception for Shellfish, Poop Study Shows By Laura Geggel, September 21, 2017 https://www.livescience.com/60470-poop-reveals-vegetarian-dinosaurs-ate-shellfish.html The open access paper is: Chin, Karen, Rodney M. Feldmann and Jessica N. Tashman, 2017, Consumption of crustaceans by megaherbivorous dinosaurs: dietary flexibility and dinosaur life history strategies Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 11163(2017) doi:10.1038/s41598-017-11538-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-11538-w Yours, Paul H. -
I bought some coprolites ( Mineralized dung) that came from Madagascar. I have some questions. What is the real age of them? Some sellers on the Internet say it's from the Eocene, others say it's from the pliocene. What animal did they come from? They were labeled as turtle coprolites. And last, Are they really coprolites? They could easily be concretions or some other geological thing. I have not been able to find much information. Here's a pic
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Cretaceous Shark Coprolite from Big Brook, NJ.
Jeffrey P posted a gallery image in Member Collections
From the album: Cretaceous
Coprolite (probably shark) Upper Cretaceous Wenonah Formation Big Brook Colts Neck, NJ.- 1 comment
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Hi FF, Here are a number of items that I believe are varieties of coprolites or possibly mineralization. Thoughts. #1 #2
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From the album: North Sulphur River Texas
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Short NSR hunt due to a leaky boot. I did manage to find a nice size Mosasaur vert and a couple of coprolites with bone and shell in them.
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Last year researchers published a paper suggesting that sauropod dinosaurs would have made a contribution to climate change in the Mesozoic by producing as much as 520 million tons of methane gas. However, little research has been done into the fossil sites where accumulations of coprolites are associated with sauropods proving that sauropods produced enough methane gas to warm the earth. Are there any fossil sites around the world where sauropod remains have been found in association with multiple coprolites? If so, then we might hypothesize that the biggest flatulence by sauropod dinosaurs may have been due to the fact that the sauropods that were physically exhausted after long migrations across barren landscapes may have consumed too much plant material. Note: If a Chinese gas company found a turiasaur skeleton in Xinjiang that is associated with coprolite pyramids, then that sauropod would be named Gasotitan (just as Gasosaurus was named because it was found by a Chinese gas company).
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