Coprolite
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
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 κόπρος (kopros, meaning 'dung') and λίθος (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.
[edit]
See also
- Bromalite
- Fecalith
- Fossil
- Fossils and the geological timescale
- Gastrolith
- Lloyds Bank coprolite
- Regurgitalith
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Coprolite" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
