An Arizona museum tells the stories of ancient animals through their fossilized poop

WILLIAMS, Ariz. -- One mode to assistance archer however a Tyrannosaurus rex digested nutrient is to look astatine its poop.

Bone fragments successful a portion of fossilized excrement astatine a caller depository successful bluish Arizona — aptly called the Poozeum — are among the tinier bits of grounds that bespeak T. rex wasn’t overmuch of a chewer, but alternatively swallowed full chunks of prey.

The illustration is 1 of much than 7,000 connected show astatine the depository that opened successful May successful Williams, a municipality known for its Wild West shows on Route 66, wildlife attractions and a railway to Grand Canyon National Park.

The Poozeum motion features a agleam greenish T. rex cartoon quality sitting connected a toilet to drawback attraction from the buzzing neon lights and muffled 1950s euphony emanating from different businesses.

Inside, show cases filled with coprolites — fossilized feces from animals that lived millions of years agone — enactment the walls. They scope from minuscule termite droppings to a monolithic specimen that weighs 20 pounds (9 kilograms).

Poozeum's president and curator, George Frandsen, bought his archetypal chunk of fossilized feces from a store successful Moab, Utah, erstwhile helium was 18, helium said. He already loved dinosaurs and fossils but had ne'er heard of fossilized poop. From there, his fascination grew.

“It was funny. It was gross," helium said. "But I learned precise rapidly it could archer america truthful overmuch astir our prehistoric past and however important they are to the fossil record.”

Coprolites aren’t tremendously communal but they tin marque up the bulk of fossils recovered astatine immoderate sites, and radical person learned much and much astir them implicit the past fewer decades, said Anthony Fiorillo, enforcement manager of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

It tin beryllium hard to place them and successful immoderate cases, specimens that appeared to beryllium coprolites — with their pinched ends and striations — were examined further and yet reclassified arsenic thing else.

“There’s a fig of sedimentary processes that tin nutrient an extrusion of brushed mud to a antithetic layer,” helium said. “So deliberation astir your toothpaste, for example. When you compression it, determination tin beryllium immoderate striations connected that toothpaste.”

Fossil enthusiast Brandee Reynolds precocious visited the depository with her hubby aft uncovering it was a abbreviated detour from a roadworthy travel they had planned.

“I mostly find crisp teeth and things similar that,” she said. “I haven’t truly recovered a full batch of coprolite, but who doesn’t emotion coprolite?”

A item of Frandsen's postulation is simply a specimen that holds a Guinness World Record for being the largest coprolite near by a carnivorous animal. Measuring much than 2 feet (61 centimeters) agelong and implicit 6 inches (15 centimeters) wide, Frandsen said it's believed to beryllium from a T. rex, fixed wherever it was recovered connected a backstage ranch successful South Dakota successful 2019.

Frandsen besides holds the grounds for the largest certified coprolite postulation of 1,277 pieces, earned successful 2015 erstwhile it was verified astatine the South Florida Museum successful Bradenton, Florida.

His postulation present stands astatine astir 8,000 specimens. He doesn't person the country to show it each successful the depository successful Williams and features immoderate online.

No request to interest astir immoderate odor oregon germs, Frandsen said. Those evaporated millions of years ago, erstwhile the feces were covered with sediment and replaced by minerals, making them rock-hard.

Location, shape, size and different materials similar bones oregon plants tin find if thing is simply a coprolite, but not needfully which carnal deposited it, Fiorillo said.

“I deliberation the bulk of america would say, let’s pump the brakes connected that and conscionable beryllium blessed if we could find carnivore, herbivore and past look astatine perchance those nutrient cycles wrong each of those wide groups,” said Fiorillo, a trained paleontologist and writer of books connected dinosaurs.

Ideally, Fiorillo said helium hopes fossils that are uncommon and tin adhd to the knowing of the prehistoric satellite find their mode into the nationalist sphere truthful researchers tin usage them arsenic they signifier hypotheses astir beingness agelong ago.

Like Frandsen, Fiorillo said helium was captivated by fossils erstwhile helium was young. He pointed to backstage quarries successful Wyoming's Fossil Basin wherever the nationalist tin hunt for fossilized fish, plants and adjacent coprolites. People besides tin sojourn a probe quarry to larn astir paleontology astatine the adjacent Fossil Butte National Monument.

If a kid goes location inspired aft uncovering a fossil oregon seeing 1 connected show astatine a museum, past that's awesome, Fiorillo said.

“Maybe they’ll beryllium the adjacent generation,” helium said.