PHOTOS: MARTIN QVARNSTRÖM (BEETLES); JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK (SHREW);
EDWIN REMSBERG, VW PICS/UIG VIA GETTY IMAGES (TREES)
SOME VERY OLD OBJECTS come in exquisite containers—gilded
sarcophagi, carved chests—and others, in less appealing packages.
The newfound beetle Triamyxa coprolithica is among the latter. A
team of scientists reported discovering the species in a coprolite,
aka fossilized feces. The team used synchrotron microtomography,
a powerful x-ray technique, to scan an ancient dropping that the
scientists had unearthed in Poland. Inside the 230-million-year-old
scat, nickel size in diameter, were partial and whole specimens of
the tiny beetle (above). Study lead author Martin Qvarnström says
that to see 3D scans of the bugs, “it’s like they’re becoming alive in
front of you.” With even some of the delicate legs and antennae
intact, the remains were preserved well enough to identify the bee-
tles as a previously unknown, now extinct species—the first time an
insect species has been described from a coprolite. The researchers
theorized that the dung came from Silesaurus opolensis—a dino-
saur relative up to eight feet long—and hope their discovery will
encourage more stool sampling by paleontologists. —HW
PALEONTOLOGY
SCAT SCAN DISCOVERY
FOUND IN TRIASSIC FECES: A NEW BEETLE SPECIES
REFORESTATION
New forests
benefit from
coffee’s jolt
Just like us, forests
move a bit faster
when there’s cof-
fee on hand. An
experiment in a
Costa Rican rain-
forest covered
deforested land
with pulp that’s a
by-product of the
coffeemaking pro-
cess, to see how
it affected forest
regrowth. After
two years, the
pulp-covered
forest plots were
doing much better
than untreated
ones—giving coffee
producers a new,
sustainable alter-
native to dumping
their waste.
—SARAH GIBBENS
DISPATCHES
FROM THE FRONT LINES
OF SCIENCE
AND INNOVATION
The saving of the shrew
Unlike seasonal hibernators, the Etruscan
shrew—one of Earth’s smallest mammals—
must eat heartily year-round to stay
alive. But the insectivore may have a
different way to conserve energy
in winter: It shrinks a section of
its brain by more than 25 per-
cent. The lost cells regrow by
summertime. —HICKS WOGAN
BREAKTHROUGHS (^) | EXPLORE