George Frandsen, diving deep into the world of coprolites

You see this? Hold it real still

You know what those are? Those are called the micro poos. Hello everyone, my name is George Franzen and I hold the Guinness World Record

for the largest collection of copper lights or fossilized poop. So now let's take a look at a bunch of great specimens from my poo safe

Look at this big beautiful one. It looks like it was just made. God, this is a little box full of poo

Big pellets, little pellets, medium pellets. Not only do I collect just fossilized poo, I collect fossils next to poos or on poos

Look at that poo. It's almost like a big grin, big grin for this exciting poo

All fossilized, I don't collect fresh poo. I also hold the record for the largest copper light in the world

The only carnivorous dinosaur that was large enough to dump this remarkable bone-filled poop

70 to 66.5 million years ago during the late Cretaceous was a Tyrannosaurus rex

Interestingly enough, Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons were discovered in the same area as Barnum

So we can be fairly confident that this is a T-Rex trophy turd

If you're wondering why copper lights are so awesome, you're in luck, because today I am going to share five fascinating things that copper lights can teach us

Number one home sweet home Do you know that prehistoric critters actually lived in poop It totally gross but it actually true Here is a spectacular copper light from Florida which shows evidence of insect burrowing

This shows that poop played an important part in our prehistoric ecosystem, much like poop in modern times

These processes help break down the poop and supply nutrients like phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium, which helps plants grow faster

More plants equals more food. More food equals more poop. You see it

Number two. Ha, you get it. Number two. Smells good, but tastes bad

See this cookie? It looks and smells great. But imagine your reaction if you were to bite into this cookie and instead of delicious cream filling, you got toothpaste instead

Well, you'd be superiors. and spit it out, right? Check out this incredible coprite from South Carolina

It has perfect top and bottom bite marks from some type of prehistoric critter

Most likely a garfish of some kind. When this turd was fresh in the water

it probably gave off a pungent scent that made it seem like an attractive meal

to a hungry predator. When the creature bit into the poo, it quickly realized this was not a delicious meal and spit it right out

This term is called aborted caprophagy. We know prehistoric fish sampled poo because of this incredible specimen

discovered in southwestern Wyoming. It has remnants of poo stuck in its teeth

To date this is the only vertebrate fossil that ever been discovered that shows this yucky feeding habit Number three wide load Think of a giant crocodile or alligator

Now think of its poop. Did you think of something really long

Of course you did, but did you know that it's the diameter or width of a crocodile's poop

that has direct correlation of the animal's length? It's true. Using a mathematical equation, scientists can estimate

the length of a crocodilian using the diameter of its poop. Because crocodilians have changed very little over millions of years

paleontologists can use this equation to estimate body sizes when crocodileocopalites and fossilized poops are discovered

Here is an example using one of my favorite coprolites, Precious. Precious is a crocodilean copperite with the width of 12.5-770

centimeters or just under five inches. Using the PooWit equation, I can estimate that the maker was

6.5 meters or 21 feet long. That's one huge prehistoric crock. Number four, who goes there

in the world of coprolites? It is really difficult to link prehistoric feces with a certain

prehistoric creature. However, some lungfish and shark species have very distinctive valves in their

intestines. These spiral intestinal valves make gorgeous spiraled poop that turn into

copper lights. This one is from Kansas. This one is from New Jersey

Finally, this beautiful specimen straight from England. Knowing what type of creature made a specific copper light helps us piece together what prehistoric ecosystems look like during a certain time and place Number five what goes in must come out This is Barnum a Tyrannosaurus Rex Copperlight from South Dakota

Barnum is the largest copperlight in the world. Terranosaur copperites like this one provide a wealth of information about

the diet and digestion of this formidable dinosaur. By studying the bone inclusions

we can tell that T-Rex crushed and consumed large quantities of bones when it ate

It also shows that T-Rex was not capable of completely digesting all of these bones

This is a small piece of Barnum, showing a distinct bone inclusion

You can also see bits of bone throughout the surface of Barnum

Cockerlikes tend to be the butt of a lot of fossil jokes

However, they're an incredibly important and underrated part of our fossil record

They can tell us a lot about prehistoric ecosystems, animal diets, physiology, anatomy, and of course, behaviors

So what's next for Barnum? Like his namesake, P.T. Barnum, Barnum the Copperlight is going to take his show on the road

So, hopefully, Barnum will be at an exhibit near you very soon

I hope you enjoyed meeting Barnum. Thank you, Guinness World Records, for making Copperlites great again