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Post by RickB on Oct 16, 2021 10:50:51 GMT -5
They were painted using an ex-lax® Regular Strength Chocolated Stimulant Laxative paint set.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,171
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Post by RWA3006 on Oct 16, 2021 12:45:15 GMT -5
They were painted using an ex-lax® Regular Strength Chocolated Stimulant Laxative paint set. Wonder if they still use the original ex lax formula now days???
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Post by RickB on Oct 16, 2021 14:07:27 GMT -5
They were painted using an ex-lax® Regular Strength Chocolated Stimulant Laxative paint set. Wonder if they still use the original ex lax formula now days??? Don't know Randy, but I bet it would have helped Mr. Hadrosaur void out those pesky gastroliths and tree limbs.
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,171
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Post by RWA3006 on Oct 19, 2021 6:52:11 GMT -5
TURD TUESDAY
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Post by 1dave on Oct 19, 2021 16:14:30 GMT -5
TURD TUESDAY Is the darker material leaves? (Obviously the red and pink are roses. )
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,171
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Post by RWA3006 on Oct 20, 2021 6:28:32 GMT -5
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,171
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Post by RWA3006 on Oct 21, 2021 19:50:46 GMT -5
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Brian
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2020
Posts: 1,506
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Post by Brian on Oct 21, 2021 19:58:03 GMT -5
I can't wait to see what you find on the trip! Safe travels and I hope you find some good crap!
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Oct 21, 2021 20:23:12 GMT -5
Dang, between jamesp's puppies and your poop, I'll be in suspense forever!
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 21, 2021 20:25:33 GMT -5
It's only right that I display this ensemble to herald a special journey to the coprolite grounds beginning tomorrow. I will have a special guest with me to complete a sacred task and I'll report on the trip when we return in a few days Okay...so these descriptions just made it extremely enticing! I look forward to hearing the story...and seeing the pics of the journey!
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 21, 2021 20:27:55 GMT -5
Dang, between jamesp 's puppies and your poop, I'll be in suspense forever!
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,171
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Post by RWA3006 on Oct 21, 2021 20:53:25 GMT -5
It's only right that I display this ensemble to herald a special journey to the coprolite grounds beginning tomorrow. I will have a special guest with me to complete a sacred task and I'll report on the trip when we return in a few days Okay...so these descriptions just made it extremely enticing! I look forward to hearing the story...and seeing the pics of the journey! Will be a defining moment in my life. I think I've got everything packed in the truck, hope I haven't forgotten anything.
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 21, 2021 20:59:04 GMT -5
Okay...so these descriptions just made it extremely enticing! I look forward to hearing the story...and seeing the pics of the journey! Will be a defining moment in my life. I think I've got everything packed in the truck, hope I haven't forgotten anything. This sounds to be a spiritual venture. Now, I'm even more excited for you. Have a super safe trip and I really do look forward to the "report" when you get back.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Oct 22, 2021 7:27:11 GMT -5
Dang, between jamesp's puppies and your poop, I'll be in suspense forever! Imagining how exciting this trip would be. Just the scenery alone, but finding coprolites is over the top. I'll link you to the ongoing success Robin.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 23, 2021 9:35:43 GMT -5
What to do with too much poo? by Becky Crew web.archive.org/web/20121105033930/http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/online/5803/on-a-rollThe average cow will drop between 10 and 12 pads of about one litre of dung covering 0.82 square metres every day – and each one has the capacity to produce up to 3,000 flies within a fortnight.Besides facilitating the excessive and unnatural abundance of bush flies in Australian farmland, large volumes of dung left unburied and unprocessed can remain for up to four years – its natural fertilisers locked up inside forever and wasted, or ending up in nearby waterways. Cattle will not graze near their own faeces, and accumulated dung can prevent the growth of vegetation, so large areas of dung-covered pasture can remain ungrazed for up to two years. Combined with the damage caused by large numbers of parasitic flies, this costs the cattle industry hundreds of millions of dollars every year.The introduction of cattle to Australia with European settlement has brought with it the significant challenge of managing the accumulation of dung, because while we have around 400 species of native dung beetle, they are used to breaking down the dry, fibrous and pelletised droppings of marsupials such as kangaroos, wallabies and wombats. They can’t cope with the enormous volumes of dung produced by introduced livestock each day, so between 1969 and 1987, and again from 1990 to 1992, scientists from the national Australian science agency, the CSIRO, shipped in a range of exotic dung beetle species to address this problem. More recently, CSIRO scientists led by entomologists Jane Wright and Keith Wardhaugh, have introduced two species of European dung beetle to “finish the job”, according to a report released on the May 31 this year. The idea of introducing dung beetle species from the origins of our livestock was first conceived by Hungarian entomologist and ecologist, George Bornemissza. Upon arriving in Australia from his native Hungary in 1951, Bornemissza remarked on how starkly different the cattle fields of Western Australia looked from the cattle fields back home. While the cattle fields of Hungary were clear and virtually dung-free, the cattle fields Bornemissza saw near a little town called Wooroloo were littered with scores of dried-up dung pads. So in 1965, Bornemissza led a team of scientists at the CSIRO in launching the Australian Dung Beetle Project, researching the particulars of species from 32 countries around the world, including their adaptive capacity to Australian climates, seasonal occurrence, rate of breeding, and dung collecting abilities. Since the establishment of this project, CSIRO has imported 43 species of dung beetle from Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, 23 of which have become established in their new environments. Dung beetles belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, which contains around 5,000 species and are often referred to as scarab beetles. They are found on all continents except Antarctica, and can live in a range of habitats, including desert, forest, farmland and grassland. Other organisms such as earthworms, ants and termites also have the ability to break down dung, but none can do it to quite the extent of the dung beetle - dung beetle larvae are able to consume up to 100% of their body weight of dung per day until pupation. Adult dung beetles will feed on what’s known as dung juice – or what postdoctoral research associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Sean Whipple, refers to as a “dung slurpie” in his thesis published in 2011 – which is primarily the moisture within the dung pad. This is because once they hit adulthood, the dung beetles develop filtering mouthparts that cannot bite through both moisture and fibre as the larvae’s biting mouthparts do. Dung is not only essential for dung beetle survival as a primary food source, the insects cannot reproduce without it, as it provides the materials needed to produce ‘brood balls’ into which eggs are laid and hatched. Extensive research has been done on the environmental benefits brought by dung beetles, which includes cycling nutrients into the soil to create healthier pastures, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing soil aeration by tunneling, which lowers the runoff of surface wastes and the reduction of water contamination and algal blooms. In 2004, a thesis published by Matthew Bertone from the Department of Entomology at North Carolina State University in the U.S. found that by burying dung, dung beetles are having a positive impact on soil nutrients and pH and the growth of plant material, and in 1970, a study by Bornemissza and Williams found that dung beetles could almost double the yield of a Japanese cereal crop called millet.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 23, 2021 10:41:48 GMT -5
Dancing dung beetles memorise the sky and navigate using sun, moon and stars By Patrick Kinsella on May 16, 2016 animalogic.ca/news/dancing-dung-beetles-memorise-the-sky-and-navigate-using-sun-moon-and-starsDung beetles take snapshots of the sky and use the mental images to navigate, a new scientific study has revealed. And, according to researchers in Sweden, not only do the little manure-munching insects have the capability of accurately scanning the position of the sun, the moon and patterns in the stars—they memorise the map while prancing around on poo balls. Thousands of species of dung beetle exist all around the world, but the most well-known are found in Africa, where they tidy up after some of the globe’s biggest mammalian dumpers. Even in the dark domain of insects, these creatures have one of the least glamorous roles in all of nature—they clean up other creatures’ crap, typically by rolling bits of delicious dung into balls and scurrying away with it, to escape any potential competition. These balls are then buried, with the beetles returning to the scene later, to feast on the faeces or to use it to nourish their larval offspring. A larval dung beetle in its crappy cradle It’s dirty work, but someone has to do it, and the methods employed are way more sophisticated than you might expect. The beetles need to know where they’re going in order to hide the stinky stash in a good spot, and then they have to be able to find it again, so reliable navigation is crucial. Authors of the new study, published in the journal Current Biology, maintain that the crafty creatures can tell exactly where they are by comparing their current position to stored snapshots of the sky, taken while rolling their prize poo balls along. Previous studies have hinted at the dung beetles’ ability to use the Milky Way to find their way, but the new research reveals that they can also hold onto memories of what they’ve seen, and use these memories to map where they are. Scientists conducted tests on the insects at a facility in South Africa, which has an artificial sky where light levels and the location of various bodies in the sky can be controlled and altered. They discovered that dung beetles could detect many things that human eyes can’t, including polarised light and the spectral gradient of the sky. With this high-tech toolkit, the beetles are able to use multiple celestial cues and clues, so they’re not reliant on just one object in the sky, like the sun. 'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.' Dung beetles are huge Oscar Wilde fans… ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’ Dung beetles are huge Oscar Wilde fans… According to Lund University’s Dr Basil El Jundi, who led the study, the imaging takes place while the beetles perform an apparent ‘dance’ atop their balls of brown bounty, rotating around their vertical axis. ‘In that situation they scan the sky and take a mental image of what the sky looks like,’ he told the BBC. ‘When they start rolling they try to match the actual visual scenery of the sky with the mental image they have stored before. And that brings them away in a straight line.’ A closer look at ding beetles reveals there is more going on here than you might think A closer look at ding beetles reveals there is more going on here than you might think It’s not the first time animals have been credited with the capability of using celestial signposts to find their way around. Numerous migratory birds are believed to use imprints of the sun and certain stars to negotiate vast distances across featureless oceans, and seals have also been known to use stars to steer. However, this is the first time such advanced techniques have been proven in an insect. Ants are thought to take snapshots too, but only of their immediate surrounds (ants’ eyesight is notoriously terrible), which is a far cry from mapping the sky. Researchers believe that, in future, the dung beetles’ gnarly navigational skills could even be used to help develop driverless vehicles.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 23, 2021 10:59:07 GMT -5
Did Dinosaurs Shed Their Skins? www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44252455An analysis of fossilised dandruff fragments has given scientists their first evidence of how dinosaurs and early birds shed their skin. Found among the plumage of these ancient creatures, the 125-million-year-old flakes are almost identical to those found in modern birds. It shows that these dinosaurs shed their skins in small pieces, and not all at once like many modern reptiles. It's more evidence that early birds had limited flying skills, the authors say. The researchers travelled to China in 2012 to study fossils of feathered dinosaurs from the Cretaceous era. This was the first time that these specimens were subject to electron microscopy and chemical analysis. The results surprised the science team. dino birdImage source, SPL Image caption, The early bird Confuciusornis shed their skin in flaky fragments scientists have learned "We were originally interested in studying the feathers, and when we were looking at the feathers we kept finding these little white blobs, the stuff was everywhere, it was in between all the feathers," lead author Dr Maria McNamara from University College Cork told BBC News. "We started wondering if it was a biological feature like fragments of shells, or reptile skin, but it's not consistent with any of those things, the only option left was that it was fragments of the skin that were preserved, and it's identical in structure to the outer part of the skin in modern birds, what we would call dandruff." The researchers were seeing tough cells called corneocytes, which were filled with twisting spirals of keratin fibres - almost identical to those found in modern birds, and also in human dandruff. The research team looked at the preserved plumage of a Microraptor, a Beipiaosaurus, and a Sinornithosaurus dinosaur as well as an early bird in the shape of Confuciusornis. The study suggests that this dandruff evolved sometime in the Middle Jurassic period, when, according to the scientists, there was a burst of evolution in feathered dinosaurs. dinosaurImage source, Magnum Photos Image caption, The Beipiaosaurus was one of the feathered dinosaurs studied The authors believe that the dandruff evolved in response to the presence of feathers. These flaky fragments also tell them something important about the way these animals shed their skins. Co-author Professor Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, said: "It's unusual to be able to study the skin of a dinosaur, and the fact this is dandruff proves the dinosaur was not shedding its whole skin like a modern lizard or snake but losing skin fragments from between its feathers." The new study also adds to the body of evidence that these ancient feathered creatures were very different in one key aspect - flying. The researchers say that modern birds have very fatty dandruff cells because this helps them shed heat when they are flying. The older creatures weren't able to fly at all or were only able to get off the ground for short periods. "In these fossil birds, their cells are packed full of keratin and there's no evidence they had any fats in these cells at all," said Dr McNamara. "So that suggests they had lower body temperatures than modern birds, almost like a transitional metabolism between a cold blooded reptile and a warm blooded bird." The study has been published in the journal, Nature Communications.
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Post by 1dave on Oct 23, 2021 11:50:02 GMT -5
Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - Dung Beetle dennisstewartwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2013/05/dung-beetle.htmlSometimes, you have to be really observant in Nature to notice the "Little things" happening right beneath your feet. The image taken below represents a "Dung Beetle" of which I happened upon doing...well what "Dung Beetles" do..{auto-correct: MOV files not allowed}ing Dung! I know, it sounds just wonderful, but hey be thankful, if not for these tiny metallic friends of ours, we might be side-stepping around a lot more SH** than we would like:) INFORMATION: SOURCE: insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/bimg146.html Common Name: Dung beetle Scientific Name: Phanaeus vindex MacLachlan; Onthophagus gazella Fabricius Order: Coleoptera Description: Males and female beetles are between ½ and 1 inch long and overall metallic blue-green and copper. The front of the head is flattened and golden bronze. The male has a long, curved horn extending from the front of the head (clypeus) while the slightly larger female has a tubercle. The front legs are modified for digging. There are a number of dung beetles or "tumblebugs" in the subfamily Scarabaeinae (Canthon, Copris, Deltochilum and Dichotomus and other genera) that are important in recycling animal feces. Some are small, dark dung-feeding scarab species (e.g., Ataenius and Aphodius species). One species, Onthophagus gazella Fabricius, was introduced by USDA scientists in the 1970's and is now common throughout the state. In parts of Texas, they remove 80 percent of the cattle droppings. Most species are dull to shiny black and 1-3/8 inch or less in length with wing covers (elytra) that may have ridges (striae). They are often attracted to lights at night. These beetles are related to the sacred scarab of ancient Egypt, Scarabaeus sacer Linnaeus. Life Cycle: Adult male and females, working in pairs, dig deep burrows underneath animal excrement in which they bury portions of the droppings. Eggs, deposited in the excrement, hatch and C-shaped grubs (larvae) feed on the dung. The grubs develop through several stages (instars) before pupating within cells in the remains of the excrement. Habitat and Food Source(s): Mouthparts are for chewing. Larvae feed on animal excrement buried by the adults. These beetles are rarely encountered unless an effort is made to examine fresh potential larval habitats! Animal excrement is rich in insect fauna and can yield these strikingly beautiful beetles. Beetles can be washed to remove debris. Pest Status: This species, along with other dung beetles, plays an important role in nature: reducing fecal material in nature and thereby reducing the habitat for filth-breeding flies; considered beneficial and medically harmless. Management: None, they are considered a beneficial insect. Posted by Dennis Stewart at Tuesday, May 28, 2013
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Post by mohs on Oct 23, 2021 11:51:58 GMT -5
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Post by 1dave on Oct 24, 2021 7:07:24 GMT -5
www.cmnh.org/dungbeetlesNew Evidence Connects Dung Beetles to Dinosaurs Posted: May 04, 2016 Cleveland . . . Researchers have found an evolutionary connection between dinosaurs and dung beetles. An international team of scientists uncovered the first molecular evidence indicating that dung beetles evolved in association with dinosaurs. The findings place the origin of dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) in the Lower Cretaceous period, with the first major diversification occurring in the middle of the Cretaceous. This timeline places their origins approximately 30 million years earlier than previously thought. The research explores the potential of a co-extinction with dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The study published May 4 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.Lead author Dr. Nicole Gunter of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History generated molecular (DNA) sequence data from 125 scarab beetles at the Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, which were aligned with previously published data to create a total dataset representing 450 beetle species. The data were used to create a dated molecular phylogeny of scarab beetles. Analyses compared timing and evolutionary relationships of herbivorous scarab subfamilies that feed directly on living plant tissue to saprophagous scarab subfamilies that feed on dead and decaying matter—including dung.The results confirmed that the evolution of herbivorous scarab beetles tracked the ecological dominance of flowering plants, or angiosperms. Interestingly, the dung beetles also underwent a similar diversification pattern as the herbivorous scarabs, providing the first evidence of indirect influence of angiosperms on non-herbivorous insects. The study places the evolution of dung beetles at about 115 to 130 million years ago in the Lower Cretaceous. Dr. Nicole Gunter, invertebrate zoology collections manager at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, with dung beetle specimens in the collection. Credit: Laura Dempsey, Cleveland Museum of Natural History This molecular phylogeny of scarab beetles was dated to provide the first molecular evidence that dung beetles evolved in association with dinosaurs. Credit: Nicole Gunter/PLOS ONE Molecular data from this dung beetle species, Lepanus occidentalis, was sequenced for research that connects dung beetle evolution to dinosaurs. Credit: Cate Lemann, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO Molecular data from this dung beetle species, Lepanus parapisoniae, was sequenced for research that connects dung beetle evolution to dinosaurs. Credit: Cate Lemann, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO Dr. Nicole Gunter of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History holding dung beetle specimens that were analyzed for research published in the journal PLOS ONE. Credit: Laura Dempsey, Cleveland Museum of Natural History Dung beetle specimens in The Cleveland Museum of Natural History invertebrate zoology collection. Credit: Laura Dempsey, Cleveland Museum of Natural History “Surprisingly, the timing and diversification of dung beetles is correlated with the ecological dominance of angiosperms,” said lead author Dr. Nicole Gunter, invertebrate zoology collections manager at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. “Through these findings, we hypothesize that the incorporation of flowering plants in the diet of dinosaurs resulted in the first palatable dung source for feeding—providing a new niche for evolution.” “Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial animals for 135 million years and definitely shaped ecosystems throughout their existence,” said co-author Dr. Stephen Cameron of Queensland University of Technology in Australia. “This paper is the first to demonstrate that the speciation of a group was tied to utilizing dinosaurs as an ecological resource—their dung.” The scientists note the existence of dinosaur coprolites (fossilized feces) showing evidence of tunneling attributed to dung beetle feeding dated at 70 to 80 million years ago, which is in line with the new hypothesis on dung beetle evolution outlined in this new study.
“This research provides evidence supporting an extinction of dung beetles approximately 60 to 70 million years ago that can be readily associated with the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs,” said Gunter. “Our findings suggest that the loss of dinosaurs and their dung impacted dung beetle diversification—fortunately, they survived the extinction event. We hypothesize that modern dung beetles are descended from species that fed either on the dung of dinosaurs and early mammals, or species already adapted to feeding on Cretaceous mammal dung. We hope that this research brings attention to invisible extinctions not captured in the fossil record.” Although the findings challenge previous research that associates the origin of dung feeding with mammals, this study also indicates dung beetles diversified at their greatest rate in the Paleogene in line with the major diversification of mammals. The team suggests that additional research is needed to disentangle the causes of the most recent diversification and to shed more light on the survival of dung beetles through the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. This story of dinosaurs, flowering plants, mammals and scarab beetles demonstrates the complex interactions of evolving ecosystems and that it is possible to determine the drivers of diversification, even for insects where the limited fossil record provides little insight into Cretaceous life.
Authors of the research are Dr. Nicole Gunter of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Dr. Stephen Cameron of Queensland University of Technology, Australia; Tom Weir and Dr. Adam Slipinski of CSIRO National Research Collections Australia (the Australian National Insect Collection), Australia; and Dr. Ladislav Bocak of Palacky University, Czech Republic.
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