Coprolites

=Turtle coprolite=

//Baena// turtle coprolite, North America, 50 million years old

Coprolites
Coprolites are fossilized poo. Coprolites give information about an extinct animal's digestive system and what it ate, which, in turn, gives us clues about their ancient habitats. The word //coprolite// comes from the Greek word //kopros//, meaning dung. Coprolites are trace fossils. Fossil scientists are called palaeontologists. Fossil scientists divide fossils into 2 groups: trace fossils and body fossils. Trace fossils show how an animal lived, body fossils show what an animal looked like. Trace fossils include footprints, burrows and droppings, eggs, nests, tracks and borings. An animal can leave behind only one body, but it can leave behind thousands of trace fossils!

Want to learn more about trace fossils? Visit: http://www.museum.gov.ns.ca/mnh/nature/tracefossils/english/

Baena Turtles
//Baena// turtles in an Eocene habitat in North America, 50 million years ago.

//Baena// Turtle Facts:
//Baena hatcheri// turtles are extinct. They lived 50 million years ago during the Eocene epoch. So far //Baena// fossils have been found only in North America. //Baena// turtles were carnivores or mollusk eaters. They preferred to live in rivers and streams. They survived the mass extinction at the end of the Mesozoic that killed all the dinosaurs. They disappeared a few million years later during the Eocene epoch.

More about epochs and geological time: Visit: http://www.carlwozniak.com/earth/Life.html

Who dung it?
Discover facts about the biggest, deepest, oldest and coldest poops and their poopertrators: Visit: http://www.jacobberkowitz.com/index.php/books/poop/amazing_coprolite_fossil_feces_facts/_