30-mln yr old fossilized mega-dung reveals secret ecology of lost world.Byline: ANI Washington, July 16 (ANI): A new study of 30 million year old fossil 'mega-dung' from extinct giant South American mammals reveals evidence of complex ecological interactions and theft of dung-beetles' food stores by other animals. It is a well-known 'fact' that were it not for the dung-beetle, the world would be knee-deep in animal droppings, especially those of large herbivores like cows, rhinos and elephants which, because they eat more food, produce more waste. By burying that waste, dung beetles not only remove it from the surface, they improve and fertilize the soil and reduce the number of disease-carrying flies that would otherwise infest in·fest v. 1. To live as a parasite in or on tissues or organs or on the skin and its appendages. 2. To inhabit or overrun in numbers large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious. the dung DUNG. Manure. Sometimes it is real estate, and at other times personal property. When collected in a heap, it is personal estate; when spread out on the land, it becomes incorporated in it, and it is then real estate. Vide Manure. . If the modern dung beetle deserves praise for these global sanitation efforts, then the extinct dung beetles of ancient South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. deserve a medal. 30 million years ago, the continent was home to what is known to paleontologists as the South America Megafauna meg·a·fau·na n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Large or relatively large animals, as of a particular region or period, considered as a group. meg , including some truly giant extinct herbivores: bone covered armadillos the size of a small car, ground sloths 6 metres tall and elephant-sized hoofed-mammals unlike anything alive today. Such diverse megafauna would have definitely produced mega-dung, which required creatures like dung beetles for cleaning. The results of their activities are preserved as fossil dung balls, some more than 40 million years old, and some as large as tennis balls. Now, palaeontologists in Argentina studying these dung balls have discovered that they have even more to tell us about the ecology of this lost world of giant mammals, but at a rather different scale. In a study published in the latest issue of the journal Palaeontology, Graduate Student Victoria Sanchez Victoria Sanchez (born January 24, 1976 in the Canary Islands, Spain) is a Canadian actor. She emigrated with her family to Montreal in 1985. She is well known for her role as Grace Vasquez on the Canadian series Student Bodies which aired from 1997 to 1999. and Dr Jorge Genise report traces made by other creatures within fossil dung balls. "Some of these are just the results of chance interactions," explained Dr Sanchez. "Burrowing bees, for example, dug cells in the ground where the dung balls were buried, and some of these happen to have been dug into the balls," she added. But, other traces record the behaviour of animals actively stealing the food resources set aside by the dung beetles. The shapes and sizes of these fossilized fos·sil·ize v. fos·sil·ized, fos·sil·iz·ing, fos·sil·iz·es v.tr. 1. To convert into a fossil. 2. To make outmoded or inflexible with time; antiquate. v.intr. burrows and borings in the dung balls indicate that other beetles, flies and earthworms were the culprits. "Although none of these animals is preserved in these rocks, the fossil dung balls preserve in amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. detail a whole dung-based ecosystem going on right under the noses of the giant herbivores of 30 million years ago," said Dr Sanchez. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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