(Sub)fossils in Guano

This week, I visited the Beneski Museum of Natural History at Amherst College. The museum is home to one of the most famous fossils in the world, a slab bearing the first fossil dinosaur footprints ever discovered. Remarkably, the slab was used for years as a doorstop before its importance was recognized.

While the museum’s remarkable assemblage of fossil trackways is the most unique aspect of the collections, a different type of fossil caught my eye. Within a nifty display illustrating different pathways to fossilization, a somewhat unfortunate-looking bird sits in a pull-out drawer. The specimen was collected from Guanape Island, off the coast of mainland Peru. Although it looks almost like a mangled rubber chicken, the specimen is actually hardened and pretty much reduced to the bones. The bird is encased in a thin layer of guano: that is, it is literally preserved in poop. Guano is the term scientists use for the bird and bat droppings. Guano is rich in phosphate, which under the right conditions can enhance preservation of shell and bone. In places where animals congregate in large numbers, guano may form layers than are meters and meters deep.

A closer look reveals the specimen here is a penguin: the dead giveaway is the very short wing.  This penguin is most likely a Humboldt Penguin, a species which inhabits the coasts of Peru today and happens to feel quite comfortable digging into guano layers to create burrows for nesting. Guano nesting can be hazardous, however. Humans have recognized that guano makes an excellent fertilizer for centuries, and have often excavated guano deposits with little regard for the birds using the deposits as breeding colonies, stripping them bare with rapacious greed. This approach is short-sighted, as the deposits are replenished by the birds themselves – more responsible harvesting schedules can turn guano into a renewable resource and have been adapted in recent times and many sights.