News & Comment

摘要

The science of studying fossilized faecal remains has come along way since the time when they were thought to be 'Bezoar Stones', with their similarity 'to the concretions in the gall bladder of the Bezoar goat' (from a later 1900 edition of Francis T. Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History, MacMillan & Co., London, v.2, p.6). And it is doubted whether the partial poem below, written by 'a certain learned and witty Fellow of New College', was ever taken seriously: 'Approach, approach, ingenious youth, And learn this fundamental truth: The noble science of Geology, Is founded firmly in Coprology' With advances in technology and interpretation, coprolites are providing serious evidence towards understanding the biology of extinct animals. The discovery of a large carnosaur coprolite, from the late Cretaceous (Campanian) age deposits of Alberta, Canada was recently announced by Karen Chin, the lead author, in the pages of Palaios (v.18, p.286, 2003). Like the probable Tyrannosauruscoprolite from Maastrichtian-aged deposits of Saskatchewan, Canada (Geology Today, 1998, v.18, pp. 133-134), this specimen was discovered by noted collector Wendy Sloboda.