Fish Coprolites
Coprolites are fossilized feces, they range in size
from large dinosaur specimens weighing several pounds to the tiny
pellets of marine animals.
I did a quick search on EBay and came up with over 500 hits, most of
these claiming to be dinosaur coprolites. According to George Frandsen
(who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of
fossilized poop, with more than 5,000 specimens) "they’re not coprolites
at all. They’re rocks that didn’t have value until someone said, ‘Hey,
that’s probably a dinosaur turd.’”. Here in New Jersey shark, fish
and crustacean coprolites are somewhat common. To be honest, I never
paid a great deal of attention to these fossils before until I came
across a fish coprolite containing a remarkable fish spine. (see
below).
Plate 1
Fish coprolite with fish spine.
Monmouth County, NJ
Plate 2
Coprolite with small fish vertebra.
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