Sydney, Sept. 20 -- An Australian-led study used prehistoric feces to uncover how molecular fossilization occurs, revealing new insights into what ancient animals ate, the world they lived in and what happened after they died.
The study, published in the journal Geobiology, examined 300-million-year-old fossilized droppings, or "coprolites," mostly from the Mazon Creek fossil site in the United States, according to a statement released Friday by Australia's Curtin University.
The coprolites were already known to contain cholesterol derivatives, which is strong evidence of a meat-based diet, but the new research explored how those delicate molecular traces were preserved and survived the ravages of time.
Usually, soft tissues are fossilis...