Fossilized Dung Balls Reveal Secret Ecology Of Lost World

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090716093524.htm

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2009) — A new study of 30-million-year-old-fossil 'mega-dung' from extinct giant South American mammals, published in Palaeontology, reveals evidence of complex ecological interactions and theft of dung-beetles' food stores by other animals.

The dung-beetle has fallen on hard times. Once worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians its status has now slipped to that of unsung and forgotten hero, the butt of scatological jokes. Yet the dung-beetle is truly heroic. It is a well known 'fact' that were it not for the dung-beetle the world would be knee-deep in animal droppings, especially those of large herbivores like cows, rhinos and elephants which, because they eat more food, produce more waste. By burying that waste dung-beetles not only remove it from the surface, they improve and fertilise the soil and reduce the number of disease-carrying flies that would otherwise infest the dung.

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