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Wombats make cube-shaped poop, thanks to unique intestines
ScienceMag.com ^ | Nov 20, 2018 | Frankie Schembri

Posted on 11/21/2018 2:49:28 PM PST by ETL

Wombats, short-legged, burrowing marsupials native to Australia, are the only animals known to produce cube-shaped feces.

It’s long been speculated that wombats produce these poop bricks as a unique way of marking their territory.

Now, scientists have determined the likely causes of these unusual feces are the shape and flexibility of the wombats’ intestines, National Geographic reports.

Researchers inflated long balloons in the intestines of dead common wombats to measure the shape and flexibility and found two ravinelike grooves where the intestines were more elastic.

These grooves could form the poop into a solid cube just before it exits the wombat, the scientists reported over the weekend at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics in Atlanta. 

Next, the researchers say they’ll investigate how only two intestinal grooves can extrude a cube, as opposed to four—one for each face except the top and bottom.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: australia; chitchat; cocktailhourchat; didnotneedtoknowthis; goodtoknow; poop; shitchat; smarteralready; sureyoudidlol; wombat
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Image result for Wombat  poop

Image result for Wombat  poop

1 posted on 11/21/2018 2:49:28 PM PST by ETL
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Image result for Wombat gif
2 posted on 11/21/2018 2:49:46 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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Image result for Wombat gif
3 posted on 11/21/2018 2:50:53 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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To: ETL

Literally crapping bricks....

If they put little indentations on them, could use them for Lego blocks.


4 posted on 11/21/2018 2:52:32 PM PST by alloysteel (To try and fail, that is glorious. To never try at all, that is ignominy, far worse than failure.)
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To: ETL

God just has a great sense of humor. :)


5 posted on 11/21/2018 2:53:13 PM PST by Shark24
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To: ETL

This study is of no practical use.

What we need, neigh demand, to know is...

Will climate change make their fecal matter round, making them all die?


6 posted on 11/21/2018 2:53:48 PM PST by C210N (Republicans sign check fronts; 'Rats sign check backs.)
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To: ETL

It’s been rumored they use them like concrete blocks to shore up their burrows.


7 posted on 11/21/2018 2:54:44 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: C210N
Image result for Wombat gif
8 posted on 11/21/2018 2:54:46 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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To: alloysteel
Literally crapping bricks....

I guess that is what you use to build a sh!t brickhouse. Who knew.

9 posted on 11/21/2018 2:55:27 PM PST by FatherofFive (Islam is EVIL and needs to be eradicated)
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To: ETL

10 posted on 11/21/2018 2:56:03 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
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To: Shark24
Image result for Wombat poop gif
11 posted on 11/21/2018 2:56:26 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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To: ETL
rat-s-ass

squirrels, OK they are cute. This story? Not so much.

12 posted on 11/21/2018 2:56:53 PM PST by MomwithHope
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To: All
Related image
13 posted on 11/21/2018 2:57:37 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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To: C210N

Ignoble prize here we come.

“What did you do for your grant?”

“I made virtual wombat sausage using air and plastic.”


14 posted on 11/21/2018 2:57:44 PM PST by tbw2
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To: All
This apparently is for real...

____________________________________________________________________

71st Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics

Sunday–Tuesday, November 18–20, 2018; Atlanta, Georgia

Session E19: Biological fluid dynamics: General I

5:10 PM–6:28 PM, Sunday, November 18, 2018
Georgia World Congress Center Room: B306

Chair: David Saintillan, University of California, San Diego

Abstract: E19.00001 : How do wombats make cubed poo? 

5:10 PM–5:23 PM

  Abstract  

Presenter:

Patricia J Yang  
(Georgia Inst of Tech)

Authors:

Patricia J Yang  
(Georgia Inst of Tech)

Miles Chan
(Georgia Inst of Tech)

Scott Carver
(University of Tasmania, Australia)

David L Hu
(Georgia Inst of Tech)

source:
http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD18/Session/E19.1

15 posted on 11/21/2018 3:00:22 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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To: ETL

I saw this article and I just knew that it would be you that would be posting it.
I hope I never start putting out cubes, I have enough prob....OK, TMI.


16 posted on 11/21/2018 3:00:32 PM PST by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope.,)
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To: ETL

Almost Panda Bear cute.

Nature does have a sense of humor too. Too bad Wombat’s don’t have good vision. Otherwise they too would have round pellet style poop.


17 posted on 11/21/2018 3:00:38 PM PST by Boomer (The only good leftists are those who have 'left us' for another country)
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To: All
Here’s a long detailed National Geographic article on the subject...

Why is wombat poop cube-shaped?

By Tik Root
PUBLISHED November 19, 2018

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/11/wombat-poop-cube-why-is-it-square-shaped/

18 posted on 11/21/2018 3:05:20 PM PST by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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To: ETL

“Wombats make cube-shaped poop, thanks to unique intestines”

Good to know.


19 posted on 11/21/2018 3:08:22 PM PST by lowbridge
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To: Charles Henrickson

Thank you for deep belly laugh Charles! :)


20 posted on 11/21/2018 3:13:39 PM PST by Quilla
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