Mysteries of Australia: Why do Wombats Poop Cubes?

Mysteries of Australia: Why do Wombats Poop Cubes? - Printable Version

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Mysteries of Australia: Why do Wombats Poop Cubes? - Yazata - Nov 20, 2018

Isn't the grinning one in the middle on the left one of the moderators on the old board? (All Australians look alike.)

Scientists from Georgia Tech are on the case.

It appears to be the result of how the lower intestines in these animals expand as the bowels are filled with solidifying proto-poop. Kind of a biological injection-molding, except that the mold is flexible tissue that expands to take its square shape as the turd-material is injected from the rest of the intestine into it.

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-scientists-wombats-cubed-poop.html

RE: Mysteries of Australia: Why do Wombats Poop Cubes? - Zinjanthropos - Nov 20, 2018

I think it's from eating too many square roots.

RE: Mysteries of Australia: Why do Wombats Poop Cubes? - C C - Nov 20, 2018

(Nov 20, 2018 05:26 AM)Yazata Wrote: [...] Isn't the grinning one in the middle on the left one of the moderators on the old board? (All Australians look alike.)

Extended even beyond wombats, Oz can be quite a magical place when it comes to animals laying cuboid objects.

Fatu-Liva Bird: The Oo-er bird, which makes its home in Australia, has one remarkable quality. It lays square eggs. Its name comes from the sound it makes every time it lays one: "oo-er!"

Dr Karl Shuker (cryptozoologist): "This has led the more unimaginative and mean-spirited members of the ornithological community to suggest that perhaps this wonderful species is, at best, extinct; or, at worst, is wholly legendary, i.e. the oozlum bird does not actually exist. [...] Incidentally, an equally scurrilous rumour concerns the oozlum bird’s remarkable cousin, the ooh-aah bird – named after the distinctive (and very loud) cry that it gives voice to while laying its unique (and very large) square eggs. However, I can assure you that any such claim is wicked, small-minded, and a complete fabrication – unlike the ooh-aah bird, which is of course neither wicked nor small-minded... :-)" --A perfect day for the oozlum bird, the ooh-aah bird, and the Tasmanian mock walrus

The Good Life, Margo reading from a card: "The Ooh-Aah bird is so-called because it lays square eggs." I don't understand that. --YouTube clip of episode

The Legend of the Ooh-Ah Bird (SCTV2.0)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivzcu6NefvA

~

RE: Mysteries of Australia: Why do Wombats Poop Cubes? - Zinjanthropos - Nov 20, 2018

Notice the remarkable rectangular shape of Wombat Poo Paper sheets. Coincidence? I think not

RE: Mysteries of Australia: Why do Wombats Poop Cubes? - Yazata - Nov 27, 2018

Mysteries of Australia -- Giant Cow