Dung Beetles Use the Sky to Navigate – but How Exactly? 02/01/2021 A pair of dung beetles. Photo: Kev Gregory/Flickr Placed over the heart in the wrappings of Egyptian mummies, archaeologists have often found carved amulets of scarab beetles, a species of dung beetle. The amulets, many with spells inscribed on them, were intended to help the dead in a final judgment by the jackal-headed god of death, Anubis, who would weigh the hearts of the deceased to assess whether they were worthy of the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians also believed that a dung beetle drove the movement of the sun, because the sacred scarab (