No Sh#t: Dung Balls Yield Ancient Ecosystem Clues

Argentinean scientists studying 40-million-year-old fossilized beetle dung balls are here to give the straight poop on ancient ecosystems. Grab a No. 2 pencil and take note.

We've long known that prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens to the Americas, both the north and south continents flourished for eons with much larger mammals than those we see today. These mega fauna understandably left proportionally large droppings.

And while we have not uncovered a preserved example of the dung beetle of the day, we know that they too were large: what we have found are their fossilized dung balls, and some of these are the size of a tennis ball. Big beetle.

Curiously, what the paleontologists in Argentina are learning about the lost ecosystems is less about the creatures that initially left their calling card and more about the web of relationships supported by the dung beetle and its activities. The fossilized specimens were found to exhibit a variety of very small-scale indentations, cavities and borings that reveal a rich and diverse system of interaction.

Paleontologist Victoria Sanchez said the surprise finding of such well-preserved indicators of very small-scale ecosystem diversity. "The shapes and sizes of these fossilized burrows and borings in the dung balls indicate that other beetles, flies and earthworms were the culprits," said Sanchez. "Although none of these animals is preserved in these rocks, the fossil dung balls preserve in amazing detail a whole dung-based ecosystem going on right under the noses of the giant herbivores of 30 million years ago."Photo courtesy of Bruce Marlin via Wikimedia Commons.