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COPROLITE DISCOVERY OF ROYAL SASKATCHEWAN MUSEUM RECEIVING INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION

Released on June 18, 1998

Royal Saskatchewan Museum acting director Dave Baron announced today

that a very large coprolite (fossil feces) discovered in 1995 by

museum staff near Eastend is the subject of an article that has just

been published in the prestigious British scientific periodical

Nature. The specimen was found in the 65 million year old Frenchman

Formation. It is the largest carnivore coprolite known and is likely

to be from a Tyrannosaurus rex.



Dr. Karen Chin, an expert on coprolites with the United States

Geological Survey, is first author of the Nature article. Tim

Tokaryk, manager of the Eastend Fossil Research Station and

Dr. Gregory Erickson of Stanford University, California are co-authors

along with Lewis Calk of the United States Geological Survey.



"Carnivore coprolites are rare and the scientific study of this

discovery has increased our understanding of the diet and feeding

behaviour of carnivorous dinosaurs," Tokaryk said. "The coprolite

contains bone fragments of a juvenile duck-billed or horned dinosaur."



The bone fragments indicate that unlike modern crocodiles,

considerable amounts of bone passed through the digestive system of

this animal without being broken down. This evidence suggests that a

Tyrannosaurus rex shattered and swallowed a lot of bone while feeding

on a juvenile dinosaur.



To obtain biological information about T.rex from the coprolite,

ultra-thin sections were prepared and studied under a microscope by

comparative anatomist Dr. Gregory Erickson and electron microscope

specialist Lewis Calk.



This coprolite find provides us with the first direct evidence of the

diet of T.rex, the largest meat eater known from the late Cretaceous

of Saskatchewan.



The coprolite is currently on display in the lobby of the Royal

Saskatchewan Museum until approximately the middle of July.



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For more information contact:



Patrick Hall, Communications

Municipal Government

Regina

Phone: (306) 787-0689

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