Early Jurassic coprolites: insights into palaeobotany and the feeding behaviour of dinosaurs

Abstract

Analyses of coprolites provide important data on animal feeding and food quality, including information on the taxonomy of the biotope. Knowledge of the diet of extinct animals has implications for our understanding of the evolution of various physiological strategies and feeding adaptations. Here we provide the first description of plant remains preserved in coprolites from early Hettangian deposits at Sołtyk ow (Holy Cross Mountains, Poland). The coprolites probably originated from herbivorous sauropodomorphs, ornithischians and large carnivorous theropods, from which tracks are known from the site. Herbivorous coprolite producers fed on the flora growing on a fluvial plain, and the cuticles that remain in the coprolites originated from crowns of gymnospermous trees or shrubs. Coprolites assigned to large predators contained more diverse plant remains, although they also belonged to the gymnosperms. These were probably ingested together with the

Polish Palaeobotany: 750 Million Years of Plant History as Revealed in a Century of Studies. Mesozoic Macroflora

“…e diversified flora of this site is composed of lycopsids, sphenopsids, ferns (Figure 5B), seed ferns, cycadaleans, bennettitaleans, gnetaleans, ginkgoaleans, and conifers (e.g., Barbacka et al, 2007Barbacka et al, , 2010Barbacka et al, , 2022Reymanówna, 1987;Wcisło-Luraniec, 1989, 1992a, 1992bZiaja, 1992) representing flora not very rich in taxa but fully developed vegetation with forms ranging from herbs to bushes and low trees, typical for well-watered plains with meandering rivers and periodically flooded areas (Figure 5D). e localities studied and described during the last 20 years were discovered and explored in the twentieth century; they include Jurassic boreholes in Huta and Studzianna, Ciechocinek, Chabowo, Brześć Kujawski, Cianowice, Kaszewy, and Triassic clay-pit in Patoka (Figure 3).…”

Early Jurassic dinosaur-dominated track assemblages, floristic and environmental changes in the Holy Cross Mountains region, Poland

“…Many still-un pub lished finds show that many dif fer ent small rep tiles and mam mal-like rep tiles ran under the feet of di no saurs in the ear li est Hettangian of the HCM. Four fos sil-bear ing in ter vals in the So³tyków sec tion also con tain nu mer ous ver te brate cop ro lites (NiedŸwiedzki, 2011;Barbacka et al, 2022). They were pro duced by fish, small tetrapods and in large part by di no saurs.…”

“…Di no saur cop ro lites from So³tyków re vealed some ad ditional plants from the vi cin ity (Barbacka et al, 2022). The seed fern Komlopteris sp., cy cad Nilssonia sp.…”

“…Fos sil ized fae ces of both pred a tors and her biv o rous di no saurs were rec og nized from the site. This coprolite col lec tion is the sub ject of on go ing stud ies, and some re sults are be ing pub lished (Barbacka et al, 2022).…”

Exceptionally well-preserved crocodilian coprolites from the Late Eocene of Northern Vietnam (Na Duong Formation) and their coproecological implications

“…Coprolites (paleofeces, fossil feces or fecal pellets) have been considered as intriguing fossils 1,2,3,4 with low preservation potential 5 , and have gained a place in the multi-disciplinary research spectrum 6,7,8 . They can be interpreted as biogenic structures that are identi ed as a trace fossils, which are also known to be a vital tool to not only obtain paleobiological inferences 9,10,11,12 , but also played an important role in preserving traits of behavior, the ancient trophic relations, the feeding habits and dietary, the coprophagy, the producer's digestive tract biology and structure, followed by palynomorph evidence, bacterial residues, parasitism and DNA fragments 13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30 . The ndings of coprolite have been recorded throughout the Phanerozoic in every continent since the 17th century, but its ichnosystematic position and classi cation are rather new and controversial.…”