No Respect for Scatologists

When I took my early-morning walk to a downtown coffee shop, I passed a fresh (maybe even still warm) pile of bear poop.  It would have taken out my iPhone for a photo except the poop was in the shade.  I figured I'd get a better photo on my way back.  Well, yes, it was in the Sun by then, but had also suffered the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," or been flattened by several vehicles. Only slightly tongue in cheek, I titled this post "no respect for scatologists" because I take a serious interest in learning what I can by observing animal scat.  In the case of bears, some components of their diets are obvious on casual inspection.  In my neighborhood, two components usually stand out - apple skins and choke cherry seeds.  With microscopic examination, one would discover parasites as well as partially-digested foods that are less obvious than apples and cherries. So, to people studying ecology and natural history, observing animal scat is a matter of course, thus scatology is a legitimate branch of science.  However, when one looks up the word in a dictionary, our ambivalence about poop because apparent, for some of the definitions suggest an abnormal obsession with the objects of study and scatology were a mental illness.  So be it.  A synonym, more or less. is coprology, although the latter term is more often used when referring to coprolites, or fossil animal dung, dung being one of many synonyms for poop and scat.  In my travels around academia, I have ,met more than one paleontologist who kept a coprolite or two on his desk as a paper weight and/or conversation piece.  I've actually never met a female paleontologist, so I don't know whether they might have a similar sense of humor.

Text will be added to the previous two posts.  I needed to load the photos while our fickle Internet service was functioning well, but I did not have time for the accompanying text.  Check back ater if you're interested in some more weird stories.