How Bird Vomit Helps Us Understand History
Like many kids, I dissected owl pellets when I was in school - but I never realized they can be used by scientists to learn about certain aspects of an ecosystem. And today, paleontologists...
==========
What if I told you that this 10,000-year-old owl pellet can hold crucial information for preserving the future of Australia's fragile ecosystems? It's true. The specimen along with a 100,000 others was collected by Field curator Bill Turnbull from the Nullarbor plain region of southern Australia in the 1950s. And today, its information is being used to help perserve Australian habitats. Here's the neat thing about this congealed bird vomit. Nocturnal raptors like owls primarily feed on rodents and they eat a lot to satisfy their dietary needs. The bones and fur aren't digested so those parts are regurgitated in the form of pellets. Some owl species return to the same roosting sites for generations regurgitating pellets in massive piles ove...
==========
What if I told you that this 10,000-year-old owl pellet can hold crucial information for preserving the future of Australia's fragile ecosystems? It's true. The specimen along with a 100,000 others was collected by Field curator Bill Turnbull from the Nullarbor plain region of southern Australia in the 1950s. And today, its information is being used to help perserve Australian habitats. Here's the neat thing about this congealed bird vomit. Nocturnal raptors like owls primarily feed on rodents and they eat a lot to satisfy their dietary needs. The bones and fur aren't digested so those parts are regurgitated in the form of pellets. Some owl species return to the same roosting sites for generations regurgitating pellets in massive piles ove...
