We tend to think of fossils as dinosaur bones or petrified wood, but what if we told you that there’s a lot we can learn from fossilized waste?
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Sources:
Bird vomit:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216301373
https://www.earthtouchnews.com/discoveries/discoveries/worlds-oldest-bird-vomit-heaved-out-in-china/ News article about Wang et al 2016 (full disclosure, I wrote this article)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2017.1278702
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32202-x
Poop:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00877.x
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10420940600843641
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/let.12258
http://ichnology.ku.edu/invertebrate_traces/tfimages/coprinisphaera.html
https://theconversation.com/five-things-dung-beetles-do-with-a-piece-of-poo-47367
https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/575/57525802011.pdf
Farts:
https://books.google.com/books?id=SwzMBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA24
Worm sperm:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0431
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/15/fossilised-sperm-found-in-antarctica-is-worlds-oldest-say-scientists
Ambergris:
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/41/10/1075/131034
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo13105586.html
http://www.lajamjournal.org/index.php/lajam/article/view/231/183
https://www.britannica.com/science/ambergris
Dinosaur pee:
http://www.sbpbrasil.org/revista/edicoes/7_2/fernandes.pdf
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2014/02/12/the-surprising-science-of-dinosaur-pee/
#FossilFriday Here’s a giant pee puddle made by dinosaur urine. Called a urolite, it measures 10 feet x 5 feet x 10 inches deep, and was likely made by a giant sauropod (“long neck”) peeing into soft sand. pic.twitter.com/Ej0l9WfTdS
— DinoBryno (@DinoBryno) November 16, 2018
Image Contacts:
As Alyssa requested, some contact info for scientists you might be able to reach out to for images (many are simply the authors of the relevant studies).
Bird vomit:
I’ve corresponded in the past with the first and third authors of that study, so I know they should both be good contacts:
Min Wang: http://sourcedb.ivpp.cas.cn/yw/rckyw/201803/t20180302_4969186.html
(Dr. Wang provided the images used in the popular article on Earth Touch News)
Corwin Sullivan: https://www.ualberta.ca/science/about-us/contact-us/faculty-directory/corwin-sullivan
Fossil brooding balls:
http://www.dmns.org/science/museum-scientists/frank-krell/ Dr. Krell studies scarab beetles, and is an author of the publication with all these lovely photos: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Recent-dung-beetle-brood-balls-excavated-and-preyed-on-by-bat-eared-foxes-Otocyon_fig13_227033319
https://www.colorado.edu/geologicalsciences/karen-chin Karen Chin is the “Coprolite Queen” – I bet she could provide photos or point you in the right direction
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/let.12258 All of these authors also have email addresses listed. They are all in Argentina.
Amber farts:
George Poinar Jr. is the author of the book chapter I referenced above.
https://ib.oregonstate.edu/faculty/poinarg/George-O-Poinar
Worm sperm:
First and senior authors of the study:
Benjamin Bomfleur https://www.uni-muenster.de/GeoPalaeontologie/en/palaeobotanik/staff/bomfleur.html
Stephen McLoughlin
http://www.nrm.se/en/forskningochsamlingar/paleobiologi/medarbetareochkontakt/stephenmcloughlin.333.html
Fossil ambergris:
First author of the study: Angela Baldanza abaldanz@unipg.it
https://www.unipg.it/personale/angela.baldanza
Other author emails are all listed. All are in Italy roberto.bizzarri@libero.it; federico.famiani@unicam.it; pmonaco@unipg.it; pellerob@unipg.it; sassipa@unipg.it.
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/41/10/1075/131034
Urolites:
The two famous urolite publications (the ones mentioned in the Nat Geo article) were first-authored by these two:
Katherine Mccarville:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katherine_Mccarville
https://uiu.edu/academics/faculty/school-of-science-mathematics.html
Marcelo Adorna Fernandes
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marcelo_Fernandes23
http://www.ppgern.ufscar.br/docentes/dr.-marcelo-adorna-fernandes
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