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Showing results for tags 'cooyoo'.
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Weird question i know, but i found this large coprolite from a Cretaceous inland sea site near Richmond in QLD, Australia and it is by far the largest single coprolite i have collected. As you can see it is almost the size of my hand, though if whole it would have actually been even bigger as there is a clear break on one edge where it would have continued further. The sea at this time was inhabited by a range of marine reptiles (7m ichthyosaurs, 10m long necked elasmosaurs and 10m short necked pliosaurs) but also by some pretty big fish, the largest of which was the ichthyodectid Cooyoo australis (a relative of the more famous Xiphactinus audux). This species could grow to about 2.5 - 3m long. There isn't really a sure way of knowing what produced this coprolite, but i was hoping maybe i could rule out fish simply based on the large size. Assuming a maximum sized Cooyoo, would a 3 metre fish be able to produce a poo of this size? Or can i safely assume it belongs to one of the larger marine reptiles? This is probably a question best aimed at collectors of the Smoky Hill Chalk as they may be familiar with the size of large fish coprolites such as those of Xiphactinus. @KansasFossilHunter @Xiphactinus Interestingly there is a small belemnite poking out of the coprolite on one side, so whatever it came from must have been eating belemnites. I'm thinking ichthyosaur is most likely.