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Science
The most important discoveries and the most amazing achievements in the field of science.
Amber, fossil droplets or coprolites can provide a lot of information about endangered animals. The dung of this dinosaur hid a real treasure: an unknown beetle species for over 200 million years.
Led by a team of researchers Martin Quarnstrom, From the University of Uppsala in Sweden, developed a three-dimensional model of a stool Silacerous opolensis Learn its diet and dimensions. This ancestor of the dinosaurs lived in Poland now, 237 to 227 million years ago, during the Triassic period.
Attracted the attention of archaeologists Well-preserved fossils of beetles It was inside the coprolite. The legs and antennae of the insects were completely intact.
After close examination using synchronous microtomography, the study authors found that one of them Species Never seen this before, They were baptized Triamixa coprolitica. Its name indicates the Triassic and it belongs to the subdivision Myxobaca.
The 1.5 mm long beetle “may have lived in a humid or semi-aquatic environment similar to its modern relatives.” Researchers believe the discovery could contribute Learn more about early evolution In these insects, and the largest formation of amber began in the Upper Cretaceous or 100 to 66 million years ago.
It is believed that Silacerous opolensis At the tip of its jaws it had a kind of flag that would attract insects from the ground. But that dinosaur model consumed many specimens D. Coprolithica, It is also likely to hunt large insects. The drops also contained small ingested pieces of other foods.
“This dinosaur did a little fieldwork for us,” Guernstrom jokes. Investigator Underlines He and his team “could not find these insects any other way.”
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