Coprolite
A coprolite (from ancient Greek κόπρος kopros , German , feces ' and λίθος lithos , stone') or fecaloma consists of fossil feces ( droppings ) in mostly phosphatic preservation. They belong to the trace fossils and are therefore also referred to as fecal traces.
The oldest known coprolites come from the Ordovician . The term was introduced by the British paleontologist William Buckland in 1824. He referred to remarks by the fossil hunter Mary Anning that alleged stomach stones in the abdomen of ichthyosaur skeletons, if they were broken open, often petrified fish bones and scales, and sometimes even bones contained by smaller ichthyosaurs.
Due to their unstable nature before and after fossilization , coprolites from the early to middle Cambrian are rather rare. The world's most important collections are located in the Science Museums of Washington ( Smithsonian Institution , DC), New Mexico and Oxford ( Buckland Collection, UK).
Traces of manure can only be clearly assigned to their producers in a few cases. Coprolites play an important role as a source of microfossils , as they can show the nutritional composition of herbivores , carnivores and fish-eaters due to the undigested biological hard parts they contain, such as plant fibers , shells and shell parts, but also bone fragments. On the basis of coprolites, which probably originate from herbivorous titanosaurs , it has been shown, for example, that grasses developed as early as the Mesozoic .
In 1842 in Suffolk the theologian and naturalist John Stevens Henslow founded the mining of coprolite in Falkenham and Kirton and its use as fertilizer. He patented an extraction process using sulfuric acid and soon afterwards, coprolites were mined on an industrial scale throughout East England until the early 20th century.
literature
- Keyword “coprolite” in: Herder-Lexikon der Biologie. Spectrum Akademischer Verlag GmbH, Heidelberg 2003. ISBN 3-8274-0354-5
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Torrens, H .: "Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme; 'the greatest fossilist the world ever knew'". Ed .: British Journal for the History of Science. tape 28 , no. 3 , 1995, p. 257-284 .
- ^ Hunt, AP & Spielmanns, SLA: The Bromalite Collection at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), With Descriptions of New Ichnotaxa and Notes on Other Significant Coprolite Collections. In: Vertebrate Coprolites (Ed.): Bulletin . tape 57 , no. 105 , 2012.
- ↑ Ghosh, P., Bhattacharya, SK, Sahni, A., Kar, RK, Mohabey, DM, & Ambwani, K .: Dinosaur coprolites from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Lameta Formation of India: isotopic and other markers suggesting a C3 plans diet. Ed .: Cretaceous Research. tape 24 , no. 6 , 2003, p. 743-750 .
- ^ Eve Berridge: Analysis and interpretation of the evidence for coprolite mining in and around Trimley St Martin. (PDF; 903 KiB) In: trimley-st-martin.org.uk. Trimley St Martin and the Coprolite Mining Rush, February 2004, archived from the original on March 5, 2012 ; accessed on May 31, 2012 (English).
- ^ Bernard O'Connor: (Coprolites in) Kirton, Suffolk. In: bernardoconnor.org.uk. 2009, accessed May 31, 2012 .
- ^ Berridge, E .: "Trimley St Martin and the Coprolite Mining Rush": Analysis and interpretation of the evidence for coprolite mining in and around Trimley St Martin. 2004.