In Brief

T. Rex Poo Headed to Smithsonian Museum

News
By Tia Ghose
published

About 15 feet tall and 40 feet long, Tyrannosaurus rex, whose name means “king of the tyrant lizards,” is one of the largest known land predators to ever roam the Earth. (Image credit: Photograph © Julius T. Csotonyi (csotonyi.com). Image used with permission.)

A rare hunk of poop from a Tyrannosaurus rex will soon be making its way to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C.

The fossilized poop was deposited about 65 million years ago in southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada, and is currently housed in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. The feces contained bone fragments, possibly from a duck-billed dinosaur or a horned creature such as Triceratops. The shards of bone are still jagged, suggesting they hadn't been marinating in the T. rex long enough for stomach acid to wear them down.

The dino poop, also known as a coprolite, will be appearing in the "Putting Dinosaurs in Their Place" exhibit, which opens at the Smithsonian next year, CBC News reported.

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Tia Ghose
Tia Ghose
Managing Editor

Tia is the managing editor and was previously a senior writer for Live Science. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired.com and other outlets. She holds a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington, a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Tia was part of a team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that published the Empty Cradles series on preterm births, which won multiple awards, including the 2012 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.