{"id":989197,"date":"2026-08-08T15:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/989197\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:29:15","slug":"the-answer-to-how-life-evolved-on-earth-lies-in-poop-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/989197\/","title":{"rendered":"The answer to how life evolved on Earth lies in poop: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it the theory of evo-poo-tion?<\/p>\n

While poop may seem like a revolting subject, it could could also be responsible for life on earth thanks to a \u201cfecal revolution\u201d over half a billion years ago. This progression of man-ure was described in an excremental study published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNext to rising oxygen levels and other contributing factors, the importance of feces in ancient ecosystems is often overlooked,\u201d\u00a0study author Russell Bicknell, an evolutionary ecologist at Australia\u2019s Flinders University, said in a statement. <\/a><\/p>\n

To understand the importance of scat, one must go back to the Cambrian Explosion roughly 540 million years ago. <\/p>\n

The researchers studied fossilized feces (pictured) from different sites. Flinders University<\/p>\n

During this seminal epoch, which lasted between 13 million and 25 million years, Earth saw the emergence most of the major animal groups as well the rise of complex marine ecosystems and the oceanic food chains that persist today.<\/p>\n

Scientists previously proposed a wide range of theories for this relatively rapid diversification, ranging from rising oxygen levels to increasingly complex predator-prey interactions.<\/p>\n

However, the international research team believes that our waste matter actually drove this evolutionary boom.<\/p>\n

The scientists analyzed coprolite \u2014 fossilized feces \u2014 samples from 35 sites around the globe, whereupon they noticed a transformation in size, shape and composition of species\u2019 poop during the start of Cambrian epoch, Popular Science reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Cambrian Explosion was marked by the diversification of species and food webs. Flinders University<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we move forwards in time, more diverse coprolites appear,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cEvidence from dozens of deposits across the globe shows an array of different shapes and sizes.\u201d <\/p>\n

They added, \u201cThe fecal matter ranges from microscopic pellets through to centimeter-scale coprolites containing crushed shells and other animal fragments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNext to rising oxygen levels and other contributing factors, the importance of feces in ancient ecosystems is often overlooked,\u201d\u00a0said study author Russell Bicknell. Flinders University<\/p>\n

This coincided with an uptick in increasingly complex digestive systems, especially among early arthropods, which evolved specialized \u201cforeguts and digestive glands\u201d that could handle more varieties of grub, per the study.<\/p>\n

As they ate larger and more diverse diets, the organisms deposited more rich and nutritious waste products back into the ecosystem. In turn, this primordial poop gave rise to more complex critters like an excremental circle of life.<\/p>\n

Bicknell concluded that these complex diets, digestive systems and food webs may have helped funnel more \u201corganic matter and nutrients\u201d into ancient oceans, fomenting exponential ecosystem growth during the late Ediacaran and early Cambrian periods.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, this fecal feedback loop persists today. <\/p>\n

The researchers noted how critters at the surface of the ocean deposit poop that descends to the bottom, fueling organisms that reside where the sun doesn\u2019t shine. <\/p>\n

This phenomenon also on land, where the farms that grow our food use fertilizer comprised of animal dung, the scientists note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is it the theory of evo-poo-tion? While poop may seem like a revolting subject, it could could also…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":989198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[16278,90987,5516,159,16978,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-989197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-evolution","tag-feces","tag-poop","tag-science","tag-study-says","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117060604266295961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}