It’s not every day people get excited talking about feces, but that’s exactly what’s happening at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton.
“This stuff is just absolutely fascinating,” said Jeff Rodgers, the Museum Education Director. “You don’t get many chances in life to get up close and personal with fossilized poop that’s millions of years old.”
Starting on Saturday, the museum will be featuring the world’s largest collection of fossilized poop for National Fossil Day.
The Coprolite Collection includes 1,277 individual pieces from 15 states in the U.S. and eight countries.
“It’s rare,” said Rodgers. “It’s really, really hard to fossilize poop. It’s usually the hard stuff, the bones, teeth and tusks, so to even get it is exceedingly rare.”
Rodgers said most were left behind by crocodilian species anywhere from two to 30 million years ago.
The collection is on loan to the museum for the next year by George Frandsen, who lives in the Jacksonville area.
He came to the museum in August and asked for help getting it added into the Guinness World Records.
The count took place at the museum and was conducted by two paleontology specialists from the Florida Museum of Natural History and a witness.
They meticulously inspected each coprolite specimen to determine if it was a true poop fossil.
Guinness World Records certified the collection as the world's largest collection of fossilized dung.
Rodgers said the fossilized poop is so important because it tells so much about the ecosystem that disappeared millions of years ago.
“It can teach us what things were like millions of years ago,” said Rodgers. “What types of species were around, what their ecosystems were like. So it’s scientifically important, too.”
On October 3, the museum will be offering reduced price admission all day, less than half price at $9 for adults, $8 for seniors (65+) and $7 for kids (4-12).
The day is designed to promote public awareness and stewardship of fossils and a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational value.
The museum is partnering with local and state agencies, organizations and clubs to promote the exploration, education and protection of our ancient past as the local host of National Fossil Day.
Throughout the day, guests will have the opportunity to meet paleontologists and geologists who work each day to uncover the secrets that fossils reveal about our Earth and the organisms that once lived on our planet, including the information we can learn from prehistoric excretions.
You can learn more about the 'The Amazing Coprolite Collection' at George Frandsen's online museum: www.poozeum.com.