Hyraxes: Urolites, Coprolites & Butt-Drag Fossils!

Discover fossilized hyrax traces! Learn about urolites, coprolites, hyraceum, and the unique butt-drag impressions left by these fascinating creatures. Hyrax behavior and fossil discoveries are explored.

Via appreciating the importance of butt-drag impacts, urolites, coprolites and hyraceum, and discovering the setting of rock hyraxes and various other pets throughout the Pleistocene, we will never watch these special animals in the exact same light once more.

Hyrax Urolites and Coprolites

Although fossilized urine is around the world unusual, there is a word to define it: “urolite”, to distinguish it from “coprolite” (fossilized poop). It appears that hyraxes add the lion’s share of the globe’s urolite. At paleontology meetings, students can be seen sporting Tees that brazenly state: “coprolite happens”. In southern Africa, a better term might be “urolite occurs”.

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We considered feasible reasons apart from hyrax butts. These included a leopard or an ancestral human dragging target, or possibly an elephant dragging its trunk. Nevertheless, these would be expected to leave tracks, and secondly in such interpretations the elevated feature might not be described.

The Butt-Drag Mystery

Rock hyraxes, known in southerly Africa regularly as “dassies,” are fuzzy, thickset creatures with short legs and no noticeable tails. They invest a lot of their time sunning themselves on rocky outcrops.

Hyraxes likewise leave deposits of pee and dung. Due to their common behaviors, hyraxes often pee in the exact same preferred regions over several generations.

The butt-drag perception is 95 centimeters [37.4 inches] long and 13 cm [5.1 inches] vast. It consists of five parallel striations. Its outer margins are a little increased, and within it there is a 2 cm-high [0.8 inch] elevated attribute, 10 cm by 9 centimeters [4 by 3.5 inches] When it was composed of loose sand, plainly something was dragged across the surface.

Their urine and dung commonly blend to create a compound called hyraceum– a rock-like mass that can build up into extensive, dark, tarry down payments. Hyraceum has actually been used as a traditional medication to treat a selection of ailments, including epilepsy, and for gynecological purposes.

Hyraceum: Ancient Medicine

If it was a hyrax, it would make sense, since the butt trace would certainly have come after the tracks and wiped them out. And the raised attribute could be a coprolite: a fused fossilized mass of hyrax droppings.

Charles Helm is a family doctor in Stemless glass Ridge, British Columbia, and an Other of the University of Household Physicians of Canada. He assisted discovered the Stemless glass Ridge Gallery and UNESCO Global Geopark after his son’s exploration of Cretaceous dinosaur trackways, leading research study on fossil trackways in both Canada and South Africa. A research study affiliate at Nelson Mandela University’s African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, he is going after a Ph.D. in geoscience and has spearheaded operate in geomythology.

Rock hyraxes leave a lot more than just tracks and butt-drag traces. Due to the fact that they favor rocky areas, their tracks are not often located, however they brighten rock surfaces to a shiny finish. This is similar to what buffalo on the North American meadow do, developing “buffalo massaging stones”.

Another thing they occasionally do is drag their butts along the ground. Canine owners recognize that this behavior can be a sign of parasitical infections; in hyraxes the factor appears to be less clear, but this activity leaves distinct traces in sandy areas.

It appears that hyraxes contribute the lion’s share of the world’s urolite.

Fossilized Hyrax Tracks Discovery

The possible track site was brought to our attention from a site near Pedestrian Bay on the Cape southern shore by an ardent tracker, Mike Fabricius. It is around 76,000 years of ages. We located the possible butt-drag impression east of Still Bay on the exact same coast, and it is most likely around 126,000 years of ages.

In enhancement, these are the only feasible fossilized hyrax tracks ever before to be determined. Rock hyraxes leave a lot more than simply tracks and butt-drag traces. Hyraxes also leave down payments of pee and dung. Due to their public behaviors, hyraxes commonly pee in the exact same recommended areas over numerous generations.

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The butt-drag impression is the first fossil of its kind to be defined from anywhere in the world. In addition, these are the only possible fossilized hyrax tracks ever before to be identified. In the world of paleontology, anything this uncommon is important and we really feel fortunate to be able to interpret them.

Among our newest finds are two fossilized traces that appear to have actually been made by rock hyraxes long ago. One is a track site and the other is a butt-drag impression with what may be a fossilized decreasing in it.