Re: [asa] Quick Q about coprolite densities

> Another reason I was interested is because I had this idea that if
> dino-do-do could be found from prior to the origin of the angiosperms and
> then after it would be interesting to correlate that dino dung with the
> position of plant fossils in the geological column. ... Your responses and some
> comments I have read about the difficulty of assigning coprolites to
> specific dinos probably doesn't make the comparison possible.

It's not hard to determine an age, assuming they aren't reworked; the
problem is telling which contemporary animal was responsible. In the
T. rex example, the chunk was so large that no other known terrestrial
meat eater was a candidate source. Probably a bigger problem for this
idea is that meat and bones are much better for coprolites than plant
material.

Oolites certainly aren't fecal pellets, but I think a pelite is rather
plausibly mostly fecal.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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