Wombat poop, cubed | Science News

[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

Just when you thought it was safe to into (out to?) the outback again, the wombats are cubing their poop. What’s next? Making igloos out of them? Skyscrapers? Rabbit-proof fences?

Wombats are the only animals whose poop is a cube. Here’s how they do it.
The elasticity of wombats’ intestines helps to shape their distinctive poops
Science News | Laurel Hamers | Nov 18 2018

The varied elasticity of the wombat’s intestines helps the marsupials to sculpt their scat into cubelike nuggets, instead of the round pellets, messy piles or tubular coils made by other mammals, researchers reported November 18 at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Atlanta. More…