A new paper on beetle fossils from Laetoli
Have you ever thought about stealing poop? In the tropics,
particularly in Africa, a whole group of dung beetles, the
kleptoparasites, have specialized in stealing poop from other
dung beetles. In some parts of the African savanna, the poop
thieves are the most abundant group of dung beetle which makes the
live of the honest dung beetle quite challenging. Studying fossil
material from Laetoli in Tanzania, I found fossilized traces
of dung theft. Laetoli has not only preserved human footprints from
about 3.5 million years ago, for which it is famous. Laetoli has
also revealed three-dimensionally preserved insects, and
fossilized brood balls that dung beetles had made and
buried. In a couple of those dungballs, I detected
holes that were too small for the dung beetle that once had
developed in the dung ball. Those holes are likely to be
the traces of cleptoparasite activity. The thieves probably got
away with it, but the evidence is well-preserved for eternity.
The fossil brood balls, the kleptoparasite traces and a couple
of magnificent three-dimensional fossil scarab beetles are
published in:
KRELL, F.-T. & Schawaller, W. 2011. Beetles
(Insecta: Coleoptera). Pp. 535-548 in: T. Harrison (ed.):
Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Volume 2: Fossil Hominines
and the Associated Fauna. Dordrecht: Springer.
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