Fossil Facts > Coprolites

A ‘coprolite’ is the scientific name for a fossilised poo and it was Mary Anning who noticed as early as 1824 that coprolites were fossilised droppings. She provided specimens of coprolites to a gentleman called William Buckland who would become most famous for naming the first ever dinosaur; Megalosaurus. However, what people don’t always realise is that Buckland was pretty enamoured with fossil poo, so much so that he coined the term ‘coprolite’ and basically invented the scientific study of coprolites. He even had a table custom made out of some of his fossil poo collection, which can be seen in the geology gallery of our museum upstairs next to the statue of William Buckland.

Coprolites can tell us a lot about an animal and what it ate, but also about the animals’ biology too. For example, of the coprolites found at Lyme Regis, we know that those which are more spiral or twisted likely came from sharks, due to the shape of their intestinal tract, something that William Buckland worked out by injecting Plaster of Paris into the intestines of modern sharks and comparing it to these coprolites.