coprolite

English

Etymology

From copro- +‎ -lite.

Pronunciation

Noun

coprolite (plural coprolites)

  1. A fossil consisting of petrified dung.
    • 2000 September 7, Henry Gee, “Eating people - is it bad taste?”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 9 May 2014:
      This coprolite (the technical term for palaeo-poo) has yielded much to modern scrutiny. First, it is completely devoid of plant matter, including the corn and other plants that the Anasazi Pueblo people of the region lived on.
    • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything:
      Almost inevitably, he became the leading authority on coprolites – fossilized faeces – and had a table made entirely out of his collection of specimens.
    • 2018 April 4, Hanneke Meijer, “On fossil poo and picky eaters: a new study sheds light on New Zealand's past ecosystem”, in The Guardian‎[2], archived from the original on 4 April 2018:
      Analyses of the DNA fragments preserved in the moa and kakapo coprolites showed that moa and kakapo fed on fungi.

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