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Origin
The squat, four-legged wombat may be one of Australia’s most charismatic animals, but it is also the only known species in the world that is capable of producing cube-shaped poops. Now, scientists believe they may have finally explained why. In January 2021, an international team of scientists reported that a uniquely evolved gastrointestinal system was likely the result of the Rubik’s cube-shaped scat, and not the result of a square-shaped anus at the point of exit as was previously described.
As opposed to the cylindrical feces that most animals excrete, wombats produce “uniform, clean-cut, cubic feces” that have long mystified the scientific community. The first recorded evidence of wombat poop was obtained in 1960 by Tazmanian zoologist Eric Guiler, who described the “droppings of wombats” as a “characteristic rectangular shape.” Previous work found that the feces change from a liquid-like state to one that is solid, with small, separated cubes and the in
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more 3 February 2021
Through the motions
A strange feeling of relief and gratification floods through Feedback as, after years of straining, science finally plops out an answer as to how wombats produce cube-shaped faeces.
Soft Matter. Yang’s previous research record includes finding that all mammals weighing over 3 kilograms clear their bladders in 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds), regardless of body size.
Now, co-opting the massed ranks of the Australian wombat research establishment to supply intestines for dissection and employing some hardcore fluid dynamics modelling, her team concludes that wombat number twos require peristaltic contractions of gut regions varying by a factor of two in thickness and four in stiffness to produce pellets with flat faces and sharp corners.