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Bacterial Residues In Coprolite Of Herbivorous Dinosaurs: Role Of Bacteria In Mineralization Of Feces, Thomas C. Hollocher, Karen Chin, Kurt T. Hollocher, Michael A. Kruge
Bacterial Residues In Coprolite Of Herbivorous Dinosaurs: Role Of Bacteria In Mineralization Of Feces, Thomas C. Hollocher, Karen Chin, Kurt T. Hollocher, Michael A. Kruge
Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
The Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of northwestern Montana has yielded blocky, calcareous coprolites that contain abundant fragments of conifer wood and were produced by large herbivorous dinosaurs. The coprolites are generally dark gray to black in color due to a dark substance confined chiefly within what originally were the capillaries of tracheid and ray cells of xylem. This substance is a kerogen which consists in part of thin-walled vesicles 0.1-1.3 µm in diameter. Pyrolysis products of this kerogen are diagnostic of a bacterial origin with a possible contribution from terrestrial plants. The vesicular component is interpreted as the residue of …