New Species of Beetle Found in 230-Million-Year-Old Feces
Several years ago, a group of researchers found fossilized poop, known as a coprolite, in the village of Krasiejów, Poland. Naturally, they decided to scan it using powerful X-rays. Preserved inside were several of the first ever fully intact beetles discovered in a coprolite.
These tiny bugs, about half-an-inch long, had fragile features such as antennae and legs exquisitely preserved. “We were like, ’wow’,” says Martin Qvarnström, whose team first saw the scans of a fully intact beetle in late 2019. “It was looking right back at us from the screen.”
The researchers found that the coprolite fragment dates back to the Triassic period of 230 million years ago and that the insect inside represents a new species. The results of this study, published today in Current Biology, showcase the scientific potential of coprolites as time capsules of how ancient insects lived.
“This is not an amber, and yet it's a spectacular preservation,” says Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago. (At the time the coprolite was still fresh poo, sap-producing trees that provide specimens in amber didn’t yet exist.) Sereno calls the level of insect detail captured in the coprolite “really delicate—unbelievable.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-species-beetle-found-230-million-year-old-feces-180978090/
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