Cockroaches instead of dung beetles (or vice versa)

During the time when the dinosaurs "ruled", until about 65 million years ago, cockroaches played the important role of recycling large animal excrement and "made sure" that a layer of manure did not form to cover the earth.

During the time when the dinosaurs "ruled", until about 65 million years ago, cockroaches played the important role of recycling large animal excrement and "made sure" that a layer of manure did not form to cover the earth.

This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The researchers publish the findings inPLoS ONE .

A finding that is based on an examination of an ancient family of cockroaches (Blattulidae) that were trapped in fossilized resin (amber), along with the cockroaches, their faecal fossils - coprolites were also examined. The researchers used a technique that allowed them to scan the fossils without breaking the blocks of resin (amber) in them The cockroaches (and their feces) were wrapped.

Like camels, sheep, cattle, elephants and other vegetarians of our time, so too were the sauropods - the herbivorous dinosaurs that ate large amounts of plant matter. As a result, the sauropods left large amounts of dung. Today, the role of manure management is mainly assigned to flies and dung beetles. Without the natural "sanitizers", the manure will suffocate the soil and prevent grass from growing.

The vital need for "manure joints" was a serious problem in Australia when in the 60s sheep flocks grew to such numbers that the "local joints" were unable to handle their manure. The amounts of manure in the area caused the proliferation of annoying flies as well as the decrease in the quality of the soil. To solve the problem, dung beetles were brought to Australia from South Africa. The nuisance of the flies has almost disappeared and the soil is fertile again.

But in the Mesozoic era there were no dung beetles, so who took care of the dinosaurs' dung? The answer was obtained by examining the contents of the intestines and feces of the ancestors of today's cockroaches. The test showed the varied menu of the cockroaches and what caught the researchers' eyes were tiny pieces of wood preserved in the feces fossils.

The rounded edges of the pieces of wood indicated early digestion, that is, according to the researchers "before the cockroaches ate them, they passed through the digestive system of vertebrate vegetarians", since the cockroach family existed at the same time as the dinosaurs (200 million years) the researchers concluded that the cockroaches were the recyclers of the period.

Today there are no dinosaurs and the ancient family of cockroaches (Blattulidae) is also gone, (even today there are species of cockroaches that exist from other animal secretions). The dinosaurs were mostly replaced by vegetarians and luckily the cockroaches were replaced by the flies and especially the dung beetles.