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Coprolites: Definition and Recognition Webster’s “New International Dictionary of the English Language” defines Coprolite as “fossil dung or excrement.” Its etymology stems from Greek “kopros,” meaning dung or excrement, and “litos” which signifies stone or rock. In French, the term is coprolithe, in German, Koprolith, and in Spanish, coprolito. The term coprolites was first assigned to bodies found in the Lias of Lyme Regis, England, by W. Buckland (1829). These bodies were described as fossil fir cones before Buckland recognized their true nature. The same author also is probably the first scientist to correctly interpret the origin of these bodies. The nature of animal excrements, however, was known much before his time. In the 17th century M. Lister mentioned excrements in his Historia animalium Angliae tractatus (1768), relating their forms to the intestinal tracts of the animal: “Praeterea, ex excrementarum differentia, certum est intestinorum figuram aliam atque aliam esse in diversis speciebus.” The term coprolite has been defined in different ways. Some of the more important definitions have been listed by Amstutz (1958, p. 498-500) and, therefore, it is not necessary to repeat them here. The shortest definition — fossilized excrements of animals — seems to be the best. It is independent of the size and chemical composition of the “fossils” in question. There is no advantage in restricting the term only to larger excrements (some authors excluded the small faecal pellets) or in using it exclusively for nodular phosphatic masses or impure calcium phosphate, as proposed by some geologists and paleontologists.

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