Please note this cache can only be found during the following hours so give yourselves plenty of time if you wish to complete both caches:
2023 OPENING TIMES
Opening Hours in 2023 - from Thursday 11th May
The Visitor Centre will be open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 1.00pm to 4:00pm
Until October.
So just what is Coprolite? Well Coprolite is a fossil, ranging in sizes from very small to over twenty inches in diameter. This particular fossil is a nice large specimen and was once animal waste, the product of an animal that roamed this earth - you may like the term Fossilised Faeces or Dino Doo - but yes we are talking Prehistoric Poop here!.
Coprolite derived from the Greek word - kopros meaning dung and lithikos meaning stone. The earliest known specimen was found around 1830. It is classified as a 'trace' fossil as it contains a variety of specimens rather than just one item.
By analysing these dungstones, scientists called Paleoscatologists can study what diets, feeding habits and habitat these prehistoric animals lived in. They can see if they ate plant materials such as leaves, seed, bark, roots or berries which would confirm they were plant eaters (herbivores) and where these plants grew. If they found bits of crushed animal bones and claws it would show they were meat eaters (carnivores) and confirm if they lived in swamp land, in forests or on the hillsides. Or they could be classified as omnivores - who eat both plants and meat. From the sizes of the food fragments scientists could also tell if the animal had lots of teeth to chew its food well, or if it was just greedy and gobbled its food up as fast as possible. The size and shape of the fossil would tell the scientists how big the animal was. So you see, a lot can be discovered about dinosaurs just by studying their poop.
Now we haven't mentioned colour - well the colour of the dung stones would not be from the animals digestive system as you would expect, but it's colour depends on the type of soil and minerals in which it was deposited. Minerals such as silicates and carbon carbonates would be absorbed and could greatly adjust its original colour.
Coprolite fossils are often found in exposed sedimentary rocks like cliffs or quarries or even in caves. It used to be manufactured for the fertilizer industry and it can even be cut and polished and turned into jewellery.
Stage One.
Go to the young lady sat on the bench in the High street.
Is she made out of:
Wood 805
Metal 893
Stone 716
Stage Two
Replace the XXX with the correct numbers and head over to this lady's house a short walking distance away and go inside.
N 56° 23.XXX W 003° 25.805
So kids, now on to the fun stuff, lets do our own investigations and see if you are as good as the scientists. Find this nice dollop of a specimen on the shelf.
1. view it - what colour is it?
2. smell it - put your nose near it and have a little sniff - does it smell really bad?
3. touch it - poke and prod it, gently stroke your fingers over it - is it rough, is it smooth, is it hard, is it soft - what do you think has contributed to its texture?
4. hold it - take a seat and ask an adult to lift it and hold it on your lap (euwwww) - is it as heavy as a feather, a football, or something else? Adults - guesstimate its weight.
5. be a scientist - just for fun, name a dinosaur that in your opinion might have left this specimen?
Now all you have to do is message us with your answers and then log that you found this online.
Please feel free to add any photographs or dinosaur drawings to your online log. Thank you for visiting this earthcache.
Cache hidden with full permissions and thanks to all those involved.