Ancient squirrel poo doesn\u2019t stink. At least not at first.<\/p>\n
But that changes when you begin to break down the pellets. Melting them made it clear that they were not mineralized, stony fossils, says biomolecular archaeologist Tyler Murchie of the Hakai Institute in Canada. \u201cThere\u2019s no mistaking,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is a very poopy-smelling lab.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fresh fecal smell is a sign of science. The pellets contain fragments of DNA from the squirrels\u2019 diet that paint a picture of the animals\u2019 ecosystems in new detail, Murchie and his colleagues report June 9 in Nature Communications<\/em>.<\/p>\n