Beetle species newly discovered in fossilized stool

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Known as Triamyxa coprolithica, the little beetles are also the first insects to be described from fossilized feces — or coprolites — and were visible by a scanning method that uses strong X-rays, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology. Besides the discovery of beetles in coprolites, the scientific name also refers to the Triassic period, which lasted from approximately 252 million to 201 million years ago, and an order of bugs called Myxophaga – small aquatic or semi-aquatic beetles that eat algae.

Sam Heads, director and chief trustee of the PRI Center for Paleontology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said via email. Heads was not involved in the study.

“I was really amazed to see how well preserved the beetles were, when I made them on screen, it was as if they were looking directly at you,” said study first author Martin Kvarnstrom, a paleontologist and postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University. Sweden in a statement. “This is facilitated by the formation of calcium phosphate in the coprolite. This, along with early mineralization by bacteria, is likely to help preserve these micro-fossils.” Calcium phosphate is critical for bone formation and maintenance, and mineralization occurs when organic compounds are converted to inorganic compounds during decomposition processes.

Based on the size, shape, and other anatomical features of the fossilized droppings analyzed in previous research by the authors of the current study, the scientists concluded that the coprolites were excreted by Silesaurus opolensis, a small dinosaur about 2 meters (6.6 feet) long and weighing around 2 meters. 15 kilograms (33.1 pounds) and lived in Poland about 230 million years ago during the Triassic period.

“Cilisaurus had a beak at the tip of its jaws that could have been used to root litter and possibly peck insects from the ground, somewhat like modern birds,” a press release said.

“Although Celisaurus appears to have ingested several individuals of Triamyxa coprolithica, the beetle was likely too small to be the only target prey,” Qvarnström said. “Instead, it is possible that Triamyxa shared its habitat with larger beetles, which are represented by the disjointed remains of coprolites, and other prey, which did not end up in coprolites in recognizable form. So it seems likely that Silesaurus was a carnivore. And that part of its diet consists of insects.”

Heads said there was not “sufficient evidence at this point to say with certainty whether or not Selesaurus specifically selected these beetles.”

“It’s possible that a generalist bug grabs any insects it can catch and that the beetles are the only ones that survived digestion because of their (very robust) exoskeletons,” Heads added. “Its small size would certainly have helped some of them stay intact because they had a greater chance of swallowing whole and not being chewed.”

Another suggestion the researchers made, based on their findings, is that coprolites could serve as a substitute for other materials known to produce the more well-preserved insect fossils: amber, the hard, yellowish but translucent fossil resin produced by extinct trees in the third stage. The period that lasted from about 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.

“I have worked on fossil insects preserved in amber for many years and agree with the authors that the level of preservation seen in coprolite samples is very similar in terms of completeness and level of preservation,” Heads said. “It’s really really cool.”

Since the oldest fossils of amber are about 140 million years old, much older coprolites could help researchers venture further into the unexplored past, according to a press release.

“We didn’t know what insects looked like in the Triassic period and now we have the opportunity,” study co-author Martin Vekachik, an entomologist at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, said in a statement. “Maybe, when many reptiles are analyzed, we will find that some groups of reptiles have produced really useless coprolites, while others contain coprolites full of well-preserved insects that we can study. We simply need to start looking inside the coprolites to get at least Some ideas.”

And researchers who find coprolites can scan them in the same ways that scientists scan for amber bugs, which will reveal fine details, Vekacic added. “In this aspect, our finding is very promising, it’s basically telling people: ‘Hey, check more coprolites with microCT, there’s a good chance we’ll find insects in it, and if you find them, they can be preserved really well.'” “”

Qvarnström said the study team’s ultimate research goal is to “use coprolite data to reconstruct ancient food webs and see how they have changed over time.”

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