dung beetle

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2M Dung Beetles Can Survive Off One Elephant
Elephant Study Had Her
Count 13,699 Dung Beetles
new study
Jul 24, 2024 2:55 PM CDT

Elephant Study Had Her Count 13,699 Dung Beetles

Painstaking work led to estimate of how many dung beetles one elephant sustains

(Newser) - If you're forced to empty your bowels somewhere in the African grasslands, you don't have to worry about befouling the landscape. As a press release explains, dung beetles would make quick work of your deposit, with the waste gone in as little as 30 minutes. Elephants leave a...

An Incredible Drug Could Leave Us in Deep Doodoo

Ivermectin passes from mammals into their excrement, and that's a problem

(Newser) - Without the lowly dung beetle, we'd be in deep doodoo, somewhat literally. As Mother Jones explains, 100 billion tons of dung are excreted by the planet's animals daily. Dung beetles eat dung (and use it to "woo girlfriends," among other things, as a zoologist explains at...

Ig Nobel Winner: Scientists Who Ate a Parboiled Shrew

Yes, it's once again the 'weirdest night in science'

(Newser) - The 23rd Ig Nobel Awards—a spoof on the only slightly more prestigious Nobel Prizes—were held at Harvard last night, in what Slate describes as "the weirdest night in science." Legit scientific research is honored for its ability to make people laugh, the BBC reports, and the...

New Lichen Named for Obama
 New Lichen Named for Obama 
Apr 16, 2009 6:00 PM CDT

New Lichen Named for Obama

(Newser) - The latest honor for the president: A University of California scientist has named a new species of lichen after him, the Los Angeles Times reports. It's a compliment. The scientist did much of his research on Caloplaca obamae during the campaign and says the strain shares a characteristic with the...

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