Researchers have discovered fossilized feces from hyena 'latrines' dating back thousands of years to the Early Pleistocene.
The droppings, also known as coprolites, were found in two archaeological sites in Spain known to have been inhabited by ancient humans.
Analysis of the coprolites revealed they contain bits of bone, plant matter, and fungi, which could help to paint a clearer picture of what the environment may have been like at the time.
The researchers stumbled upon the fossil fecal samples while investigating Gran Dolina and la Mina for signs of ancient human activity.
'We decided to stop our excavation and study the hyena latrines,' Antonio Pineda, a graduate student at The Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, told National Geographic.
The researchers found accumulations of droppings at both sites, as evidence of regions where the hyenas would once have ventured to relieve themselves.
While it may seem bizarre, they say this strategy is commonly employed by a number of carnivores today.
'Social defecation' is an habitual part of the behaviour of many modern gregarious mammals, in which many individuals deposit their drops in specific areas, named latrines, occasionally forming large accumulations,' the authors wrote in the study, published to the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Analysis of the coprolites revealed they contain bits of bone, plant matter, and fungi, which could help to paint a clearer picture of what the environment may have been like at the time
The researchers stumbled upon the fossil fecal samples while investigating Gran Dolina and la Mina for signs of ancient human activity. The researchers found accumulations of droppings at both sites
According to the researchers, it's 'relatively easy' to trace a fecal sample to hyenas, due to the high concentration of bone in their droppings.
And, the team found the samples were rich in elements derived from bone, including calcium and phosphorus.
They also found that these samples show the latrines were used by hyenas of different ages, based on the varying sizes of the coprolites, National Geographic reports.
According to the researchers, it's 'relatively easy' to trace a fecal sample to hyenas, due to the high concentration of bone in their droppings
The researchers say these types of samples help to shed light on the conditions that existed thousands of years ago, as well as the behaviour of the animals that left them behind.
The analysis suggests one of the latrines was located in an open flood plain, while the other was likely in a cave, according to National Geographic.
'The analytical complexity of the study of coprolites reflects that these elements are, in essence, packages that represent changes in diets and digestive processes of animals that generated the coprolites and various processes of diagenetic alteration,' the authors concluded.
'This complexity underscores the importance of conducting the study of these materials from an integrative perspective, which allows to obtain the maximum information possible relating to defecators and their ethology, the taphonomic history of the assemblages, and the landscape in which they were deposited.'
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