of dinosaur turds

I have a trilobite on my desk.

And for those of you asking “what is a trilobite”, no, it’s not 0.0029% of a kilobyte (rim shot).

A trilobyte is the fossilized remains of a now extinct marine arthropod from the class Trilobita. However, not many people know what a trilobite is. So when people see the trilobite on my desk, they invariably ask the same question:

“Is that, like, a dinosaur turd or something?”

No, it is not.

However, a fun fact: dinosaur turds, and the turds of other animals, can indeed become fossils, specifically a type of fossil called a coprolite. Coprolites are in fact quite common, and when I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota this weekend, I saw that they had several for sale.

Naturally, I had to get one.

So, in the future, when people ask if the trilobite is a dinosaur turd, I can hand them the coprolite, and say “no, but that is”, and watch their reaction.

Obscure jokes are a great deal of fun.

-JM