COP'ROLITES .( from Glc. Kbir pas, kopro•, dung + War, lithos, stone). The fossil excre ments of animals found at times in the Paleo zoic and Mesozoic strata of the earth's crust. Their true nature was first inferred from their occurrence in the bodies of several species of ichthyosaurus, in the region where was situated the intestinal tube. It has been since shown that they are the voidings chiefly of saurians and also of fishes. They often contain portions of scales, hone, teeth, and shells, the indigestible parts of the food on which the animals lived. Occasionally they may he found exhibiting the spiral twisting and other marks produced by the conformation of the intestinal tube, similar to what is noticed in the excrement of smite living fishes, and some specimens have been erroneously described as plants. These peculiar markings obtained for them the name, when their true na ture was unknown, of 'larch-cones' and 'liezoar stones' Coproliles are found to contain a large quantity of phosphate of lime: and as this forms a valuable manure. the deposits containing them
have been of late years largely quarried.
Among the most interesting coprolites are those of spiral form from the Waverly group of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, originally de scribed as fossil alga- and problematic plants under the generic names of Pahroxyris. Spiran gium, Spiraxis, and now known to be the dung of ancient shark-like fish such as Cladoselaehe. The silicified coprolites of the Lies of Hanover, Germany, have afforded great numbers of radio larian remains which have been described by Rfist. (See RADIOLARTA.) Consult : Martell, Pet rif«ctions and Their Teachings (London, 1851) ; id., Medals of Creation (London, 1844).