Origin of the faeces? World’s longest poo belonging to an unidentified 'dinosaur' measures an 'eye-watering' 40 inches - and it could fetch $10,000 at auction

Longest prehistoric animal dung on Earth up for auction in Los Angeles

It measures 40 inches in length and is 5.3 to 33.9 million years old



Auctioneer I.M. Chait expects it to reach $10,000 when under the hammer



Fossilised feces of this sort if is known as coprolite and can reveal diet info



However researchers aren't sure what dinosaur it originated from



The world’s longest prehistoric animal dung is set to go up for auction next week.



The fossilised excrement dates back to the Oligocene and Minocene Epochs, which makes it anywhere from 5.3 to 33.9 million years old.



Found in Lewis County, Washington State the giant dung is expected to reach £4,700 to £5,800 ($8,000 to $10,000) when it goes under the hammer on 22 July



The longest ancient animal dung on Earth (shown) is going up for auction in Los Angeles. It measures 40 inches (one metre) in length and has a pale brown-yellow colour. Auctioneer I.M. Chait expects it to reach up to £5,800 ($10,000) when it goes under the hammer on 22 July

WHERE IS ALL THE DINOSAUR POO?

The lack of vast amounts of fossilised dinosaur feces has baffled scientists for years.

However, Slovakian researchers believe the answer lies in the diet of cockroaches, which might have dined on dinosaur waste millions of years ago.

Using cutting-edge imaging methods, the scientists discovered particles of wood inside an ancient cockroach’s gut, which they think came from dinosaur feces.

Researchers from the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Slovakia said that dinosaurs certainly must have produced a lot of feces, and yet fossils of the waste are not very widely discovered.

‘Although appearing trivial, cockroaches, one of the dominant insect orders during the Mesozoic, were never examined as representing top candidates for partial processors of dinosaur dung,’ they wrote in their study.

The dung is what is known as coprolite, fossilised feces that can provide information about an animal’s diet rather than just its appearance.



It is described by Beverly Hills auctioneers I.M. Chait as an ‘eye-watering 40 inches [one metre] in length’.



However, research has failed to reveal what animal the excrement originated from.



‘This truly spectacular specimen is possibly the longest example of coprolite - fossilised dinosaur feces - ever to be offered at auction,’ said Josh Chait, spokesman for the auctioneer.



'It boasts a wonderfully even, pale brown-yellow colouring and terrifically detailed texture to the heavily botryoidal [globular] surface across the whole of its immense length.



‘The passer of this remarkable object is unknown, but it is nonetheless a highly evocative specimen of unprecedented size.'

He continued that the specimen was 'presented in four sections, each with a heavy black marble custom base, an eye-watering 40 inches [one metre] in length overall.’

Despite being many millions of years old the excrement is not thought to have belonged to a dinosaur though, as these animals existed only up until 66 million years ago.



Also for sale are a selection of five stool-shaped specimens thought to have come from a Miocene turtle, 23.03 to 5.332 million years ago, estimated to sell for £2,300 to £3,500 ($4,000 to 6,000).



'Although it is often impossible to tell which species produced these fascinating petrified feces, it is supposed that the fine examples found in a small area of Washington State are from a Miocene turtle,' said Mr Chait.

'It is also suggested that rather than being coprolites, they are in fact cololites, internal casts of the intestine.'