Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe

Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe

Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe

Coprolites—fossil material extruded from an animal’s digestive system—represent a rare insight into trophic interactions in deep time. However, while the first animals appeared about 600 million years ago, the first coprolites are only observed in the earliest Cambrian. Conversely, in modern oceans, fecal pellets are an important part of the particulate organic carbon in the water column and the global flux of organic carbon to deep water. In this review, we analyze the impact of the advent of fecal matter on the Cambrian Radiation by examining coprolites, analyzing animal biology, and contextualizing this through the role of fecal pellets in the oceanic nutrient cycle. We illustrate the central position of coprolites in driving the Cambrian Radiation.

Is the evolution of excrement the reason we exist?

The fossil is a reminder of how incomplete our understanding of Earth’s history remains.

Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe

Geochemical data from sedimentary rocks are the primary source of information regarding Earth's surface evolution through time, including its air and …

Identifying the Big Questions in paleontology: a community-driven project

PDF | The Spence Shale of Utah and Idaho preserves a diverse soft-bodied biota from the Cambrian. While the fauna is dominated by arthropods and... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on R...

PhD and MSc positions in Phylogenetic, Computational, and/or Evolutionary Paleobiology [Posted September 2025. Deadline is January 15, 2026. See below for information about the lab, student opportu…

PDF | The Mazon Creek Konservat-Lagerstätte is a globally significant Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous) fossil assemblage characterized by exceptional... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

Abstract. The Mazon Creek Konservat-Lagerstätte is a globally significant Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous) fossil assemblage characterized by

Employment in paleontology: status and trends in the United States

PDF | A snout fragment is described as the first tetrapod from the Kimmeridgian «Plattendolomit» (finely layered dolomite, Pottenstein Formation) near... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...

Caryosyntrips is a relatively rare but long-lived and geographically widespread radiodont genus with specimens reported from Cambrian Stage 4 to the D…

Fossil-Lagerstätten are amongst the most important windows onto the paleobiology of ancient ecosystems. Inconsistencies surrounding what constitutes a…