![\"Fossil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fossil-Poo-infographic-1280x720.jpg\")
An infographic depicting the role of poop in the Cambrian explosion. Credit: Flinders University <\/p>\n
\u201cNext to rising oxygen levels and other contributing factors, the importance of feces in ancient ecosystems is often overlooked,\u201d Russell Bicknell, the study\u2019s co-author and a paleontologist at Flinders University in Australia, said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The \u2018Great Birth\u2019 <\/p>\n The Cambrian period took place around 539 million to 485 million years ago. It was during this time that nearly all major animal groups we know today emerged, according to an explainer<\/a> by the U.K. Natural History Museum. Now, more recent findings<\/a> have suggested that complex animals emerged slightly earlier. However, as of now, the Cambrian explosion is still a benchmark for scientists probing the evolution of early life on Earth.<\/p>\n In particular, discovered fossilized feces\u2014formally called coprolites\u2014have been dated to the onset of the Cambrian, Bicknell and co-author Julien Kimming, a paleontologist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, wrote in a column<\/a> for The Conversation. There is also little to no evidence of complex digestive systems in the paleontological record until well after the Cambrian, they added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fossil record of guts and coprolites shifts dramatically during the Cambrian,\u201d Bicknell and Kimming wrote. \u201cAs we move forwards in time, more diverse coprolites appear. Associated with this shift, there was an increase in very well-preserved fossils with complex digestive systems, particularly among early arthropods.\u201d<\/p>\n A feedback loop <\/p>\n However, as the pair explained in the paper, most studies on the cause of the Cambrian explosion focus on oxygen levels, food webs, or biogeochemical cycles. On the other hand, Cambrian coprolites, recovered from about 36 deposits, are primarily used to investigate the digestive systems of early life.<\/p>\n For the study, therefore, the researchers wanted to explore the origin and role of fecal matter, which remains \u201done of the most fundamental yet elusive questions in the evolution of animal life,\u201d the paper noted. In their column, the authors explained that today, poop is a vital element of the marine biological pump, or the process that circulates organic carbon and nutrients throughout the ocean.<\/p>\n Everyone poops <\/p>\n Assuming biological processes weren\u2019t wildly different back then, greater animal diversity would have triggered an ecological feedback loop in which more poop pumped more nutrients into the environment and, in turn, supported a larger population that would generate even more poop.<\/p>\n![\"Coprolite](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/coprolite-sample_China.jpg\")
One of the coprolites from the study. Credit: Flinders University <\/p>\n