A little digression...

[k0bgalan]

One of the people I met along the way was Dr. Don Collins, a scatologist, who worked for Mark Morris Associates in Topeka, KS. Dr. Morris, among many other renowned activities, was the founder of the American Animal Hospital Association. My mother worked for Dr. Morris as an editor, hence the connection.

I don’t know much about Dr. Collins’ early history, but he was a metal detectorist and was into Civil War relic hunting. There might be a few older members of the TreasureNet who might of known him as well. When I met him (circa 1972) he was intrigued with the fact that not only was I a fellow detectorist, but that I had made several of my own detectors (BFO types). I bring all of this up for a good reason—Scatology, the study of animal feces both fresh and Paleolithic. The latter is known as Coprolite.

Fast forward…

When you’re a detectorist, and your area of interest is scanning the local parks, you meet a lot of folks asking a myriad of questions. You also get a lot of suggestions where to scan, usually without any real foundation as to why you should! It is one of these interesting fellows I met this past week, who turned out to collect coprolite!

Some here might scoff a bit about collecting… well… Crap! And in this case, dinosaur crap. I can hear the laughter, but interestingly enough, dinosaur droppings (to be more polite) can be very financially rewarding! Heck, you can even buy samples on Amazon!

I guess to close, are there any coprolite collectors on TreasureNet?

 

[ToddsPoint]

I cut and polish rocks. I have a slab of fossilized dino poop out in the barn. I purchased it from an old collection. Very colorful. I’ll try and locate it if you’re interested. This is a slab from the web.

 

[k0bgalan]

I can hear it now! "I've got a lot of s*** out in my shed!" In mine are a bunch of pint Mason jars full of corroded pennies. Collectively, they must weigh about 50 pounds. Why I keep them is beyond me!

 

[Red-Coat]

These from my collection (all positively identified with input from a palaeontological expert):

Sauropod:

Stegosaurus:

Hyaena:

Sloth:

Ichthyosaur:

Crocodilian:

Turtle:

These kinds of specimens are often wrongly identified as turtle coprolites, but they aren't. They're siderite concretions of geochemical origin:

This is Coprolite Street in Ipswich in the UK, which took its name from the factory built in 1849 to process phosphate-rich fossil poo into agricultural fertilizers:

The UK has extensive deposits, mainly marine from the Jurassic era, with deep beds running into the millions of tons in SE England alone. The street in Ipswich retains its name today, although the factory is long gone. Would you want to live on Sh*t Street, though?

 

[DizzyDigger]

Remember the old show, "What's my Line"?

That would have been a hilarious episode..."Yep, I collect dino turds!"

 

[k0bgalan]

I tried to find that episode and didn't. Nonetheless I do remember it.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I tried to find that episode and didn't. Nonetheless I do remember it.

I just used it as an idea of a possible interesting show..seriously
doubt they ever had a curator of dino turds as a guest...

 

[k0bgalan]

As I alluded to, I did see the show. I'm not sure Don Collins was the guest or not.

Scatology, as a profession, isn't all that rare, especially paleoscatology. (https://www.paleosoc.org/)

 

[newnan man]

Ya'll are shittin me!
Actually I have some polished beads made from dino poop I bought at a fossil/gem show.