Home / Ecology & Palaeoenvironment / Coprolites (Feacal Pellets) in Fossil Wood

R.W. Baxendale (1979): Plant-bearing coprolites from North-American Pennsylvanian coal balls. PDF file, Paleontology, 22: 537–548.
The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
See also here.

A.C. Bippus et al. (2019): Fossil fern rhizomes as a model system for exploring epiphyte community structure across geologic time: evidence from Patagonia. Open access, PeerJ., 7: e8244.
Note figure 2E: Coprolite-filled gallery in osmundaceous leaf base.

I. Bobadilla et al. (2015): Dimensional and morphological analysis of the detritus from six European wood boring insects. Maderas, Cienc. tecnol. vol. 17.

! C.A. Clausen: Biodeterioration of Wood. In PDF.

Fred Clouter, Lower Eocene Fossils of the Isle of Sheppey: Fossil Trees & Logs. Teredo borings.

! S. Dai et al. (2020): Recognition of peat depositional environments in coal: A review. Free access, International Journal of Coal Geology, 219.
! See especially Fig. 6A: Coprolitic macrinite in a chamber in wood (now fusinite); the coprolites were charred along with the wood.

Michael J. Everhart, Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University: OCEANS OF KANSAS - A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea (Indiana University Press, 2005), Shipworm borings (teredo) in wood.

Z. Feng et al. (2022): Nurse logs: A common seedling strategy in the Permian Cathaysian Flora. In PDF, iScience, 25.
See also here.
"... We report seven coniferous nurse logs from lowermost to uppermost Permian strata of northern China that have been colonized by conifer and sphenophyllalean roots. These roots are associated with two types of arthropod coprolites and fungal remains. ..."

Z. Feng et al. (2019): Beetle borings in wood with host response in early Permian conifers from Germany. Free access, PalZ.

Z. Feng et al. (2017): Late Permian wood-borings reveal an intricate network of ecological relationships. In PDF, Nature Communications, 8. See also here. (abstract).

! Z. Feng et al. (2015): A specialized feeding habit of Early Permian oribatid mites. In PDF, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 417: 121–125. See also here.

T.L. Fletcher and S.W. Salisbury (2014): Probable oribatid mite (Acari: Oribatida) tunnels and faecal pellets in silicified conifer wood from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) portion of the Winton Formation, central-western Queensland, Australia. In PDF, Alcheringa 38.
Provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Geological Survey of Canada: Earth Sciences Sector > Geological Survey of Canada > Past lives: Fossil termite excrement. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

K.-P. Kelber, Würzburg (2007): Die Erhaltung und paläobiologische Bedeutung der fossilen Hölzer aus dem süddeutschen Keuper (Trias, Ladinium bis Rhätium). PDF file (33 MB), in German. In: Schüßler, H. & Simon, T. (eds.): Aus Holz wird Stein. Please note:
PDF page 46: About coprolites.
! PDF page 47: Coprolites in permineralized wood from the Upper Triassic of Germany.

D.W. Kellogg and E.L. Taylor (2004): Evidence of oribatid mite detritivory in Antarctica during the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic. In PDF, J. Paleont., 78: 1146-1153.
Website outdated, download a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

S.D. Klavins et al. (2005): Coprolites in a Middle Triassic cycad pollen cone: evidence for insect pollination in early cycads? PDF file, Evolutionary Ecology Research, 7: 479-488.
See also here.

E. Kustatscher et al. (2013): Early Cretaceous araucarian driftwood from hemipelagic sediments of the Puez area, South Tyrol, Italy. In PDF, Cretaceous Research, 41: 270-276. See also here (abstract).

F.-Y. Li et al. (2024): Arthropod coprolites and wound reaction in the late Paleozoic climbing fern Hansopteris. Free access, Palaeoentomology, 7: 628–637. DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.5.6 .
"... Interactions between arthropods and plants have been documented extensively in late Paleozoic trees and ground cover plants, but they have rarely been recorded in late Paleozoic climbers
[...] This discovery provides an informative example of arthropod herbivory on late Paleozoic climbers and sheds light on how the host plant responded during the early stage of injury ..."

J.L.G. Massini and R.R. Pujana (2013): Silicified termite coprolites in mesquite-like wood from the Miocene of La Rioja, Argentina. In PDF, Intern. J. Plant Sci., 174: 585–591. See also here.

S. McLoughlin et al. (2024): Revision and biostratigraphic implications of Thore Halle’s Permian plant fossils from the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands. Open access, Palaeontologia africana, 58: 53–93.
See here and there as well.

S. McLoughlin and C. Mays (2022): Synchrotron X-ray imaging reveals the three-dimensional architecture of beetle borings (Dekosichnus meniscatus) in Middle–Late Jurassic araucarian conifer wood from Argentina. Open access, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 297.

! S. McLoughlin et al. (2021): Arthropod interactions with the Permian Glossopteris flora. In PDF, Journal of Palaeosciences, 70: 43-133.

I. Méndez-Bedia et al. (2020): Pedogenic and subaerial exposure microfabrics in a late Carboniferous-early Permian carbonate-volcanic lacustrine-palustrine system (San Ignacio Formation, Frontal Cordillera, Argentina). Andean Geology, 47. See also here (in PDF).
Note fig. 4B: Section of fossilized wood with a gallery, containing coprolites in radial oblique section of secondary xylem.

! P.I. Morris: Understanding Biodeterioration of Wood in Structures. In PDF.

Robert Randell, British Chalk Fossils: Driftwood with Teredo borings.

E.M. Roberts et al. (2016): Oligocene Termite Nests with In Situ Fungus Gardens from the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania, Support a Paleogene African Origin for Insect Agriculture. PLoS ONE, 11.

R. Rößler et al. (2014): Fraßgalerien von Mikroarthropoden in Koniferenhölzern des frühen Perms von Crock, Thüringen. PDF file, in German. Veröff. Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz, 37.

! R. Rößler et al. (2012): The largest calamite and its growth architecture - Arthropitys bistriata from the Early Permian Petrified Forest of Chemnitz. In PDF, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 185: 64-78.
The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
Note PDF page 9, plate IV, fig. 1: Arthropitys bistriata, coprolites in the pith cavity of a woody branch.

! A.J. Sagasti et al. (2019): Multitrophic interactions in a geothermal setting: Arthropod borings, actinomycetes, fungi and fungal-like microorganisms in a decomposing conifer wood from the Jurassic of Patagonia. In PDF, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 514: 31-44. See also here.

A. Selmeier (2005): Capparidoxylon holleisii nov. spec., a silicified Capparis (Capparaceae) wood with insect coprolites from the Neogene of southern Germany. In PDF, Zitteliana A, 45: 199-209.
Note the boreholes filled with coprolites in plate 1 fig. 3, 4.

! W.C. Shortle and K.R. Dudzik (2012), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Northern Research Station: Wood Decay in Living and Dead Trees: A Pictorial Overview. In PDF.

! J. N. Stokland, J. Siitonen and B. G. Jonsson (2012): Biodiversity in Dead Wood. Google books. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012, 524 pages. See also here.
Also worth to read: Book review, International Forestry Review Vol.14(3), 2012.

H. Süss and E. Velitzelos (2001): Lebensspuren holzzerstörender Organismen an fossilen Hölzern aus dem Tertiär der Insel Lesbos, Griechenland. PDF file, in German. Mitt. Mus. Naturkunde. Berlin, Geowiss., 4: 57-69.

J.I. Sutherland (2003): Miocene petrified wood and associated borings and termite faecal pellets from Hukatere Peninsula, Kaipara Harbour, North Auckland, New Zealand. In PDF, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 33: 395-414.

L.H. Tanner and S.G. Lucas (2013): Degraded wood in the Upper Triassic Petrified Forest Formation (Chinle Group), northern Arizona: Differentiating fungal rot from arthropod boring. In PDF, p. 582-588; in: Tanner, L.H., Spielmann, J.A. and Lucas, S.G. (eds.): The Triassic System. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin, 61.

! M. Wan et al. (2016): Plant-arthropod and plant-fungus interactions in late Permian gymnospermous woods from the Bogda Mountains, Xinjiang, northwestern China. In PDF, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 235: 120–128.
See also here.

Charles E. Weber, Hendersonville NC: DID THE WOOD ROACH OR PROTOTERMITE CAUSE THE PERMIAN - TRIASSIC COAL HIATUS?

H.-B. Wei et al. (2019): Fungi–plant–arthropods interactions in a new conifer wood from the uppermost Permian of China reveal complex ecological relationships and trophic networks. In PDF, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. See also here.

WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature): Deadwood - living forests. In PDF. Published in October 2004 by WWFWorld Wide Fund For Nature, Gland, Switzerland. See also here.

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