ATLANTA (CNN) You might think fossilized feces are only full of crap, but new research on one specimen has turned up a hidden treasure: a 230-million-year-old, previously undiscovered beetle species.
Named Triamyxa coprolithica, the tiny beetles are also the first insects to be described from fossilized feces or coprolites and were visible by a scanning method that uses strong X-ray beams, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology. Besides the discovery of the beetles in a coprolite, the scientific name also refers to the Triassic period, which lasted from roughly 252 million to 201 million years ago, and the suborder of bugs called Myxophaga small aquatic or semiaquatic beetles that eat algae.
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