Palaeo News: Beetles in dino dung

News today of new species of beetle trapped in the dung of an early dinosaur.

Beetles (Coleoptera) are the most diverse group of organisms in the world today and they have their origins back to the Permian period but the Triassic period appears to be when the incredible diversification of beetles began. But when palaeontologists decided to take a closer look at a Triassic coprolite, probably from the dinosauriform Silesaurus opolensis,they were still surprised at what they found.

The palaeontologists used synchrotron microtomography to image a fragmentary coprolite and inside they found a many bits and complete specimens of a minute beetle. This is a new species they named Triamyxa coprolithica and a phylogenetic analyses suggest that itis a member of Myxophaga, a small suborder of beetles with a sparse fossil record.

The sheer number of these beetlesin the coprolite suggests that they were very abundant where the coprolite producer was foraging. Modern myxophagan species often occur in large numbers in association with green algae in aquatic or semiaquatic habitats and a similar lifestyle may be expected for Triamyxa. Triamyxa may have had a better chance to survive digestion without becoming mechanically disintegrated, regurgitated, or completely digested than other insects because of its small size and sclerotized body surface. Even though beetles were found in large numbers, it is conceivable that the dung maker was actually insectivorous and it may have ingested the beetles accidentally.

Read the original paper here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00674-6