This scatological discovery is “being perfected” to be great for the animal world.
According to a new study, scientists have uncovered the mystery why wombats shed weird cube-shaped granules, which link it to the animal’s super long, hard gut, according to a new study.
New research shows that short-legged marsupials have different landfills, resembling pieces of charcoal, because their intestines extend up to 33 feet long, about ten times their body length, according to a report released Thursday in the Soft Matter magazine.
The 3-foot-long creatures take four days to expel waste from their 33-foot intestines, creating box-shaped stools as the muscles contract and dry out in parts of the colon, according to the study by researchers of the University of Tasmania.
“Wombats of unknown nose are known to produce distinctive cube-shaped poos. This ability to form clean, relatively uniform stools is unique to the animal kingdom, “Dr. Scott Carver, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Tasmania, said in a statement.
“Rhythmic contractions help form the sharp corners of the cubes … Our research found that these cubes form within the last 17 percent of the colon’s intestine,” he added.
Carver overturned previous theories that wombat poop is the result of the animal having a square-shaped anal sphincter or that creatures model their feces on their own, calling the notions “total nonsense.”
“There were wonderfully colorful hypotheses around, but no one had tested them,” he said.
A previous study noted that wombats, including infant wombats, use tactically placed dumps to communicate with each other.
The study sparked online attention on Friday, and many wondered: What is a wombat? The animals live in Australia and Tasmania, usually weigh between 45 and 75 kilos and feed on grasses and roots.