> >Thats interesting, the only thing that can be said is maybe dung beetles
> >werent around 100,000 years ago. The theory is that mushrooms grew in
> >shorter and shorter supply until there was none left, maybe this is due to
> >the dung beetle.
> >
> Hey now *there's* a thought! Does anyone here know enough biology/ecology
> to comment?
I certainly don't know enough, but I think the beetles were around
long before that. I base this on the fact that there exist related
scarabeoid beetles in quite remote climates (e.g. here in Sweden we
have the tordyvel [don't know its latin name]) and continents (all of
them except antarctica) which suggest that the family has been around
for several millions of years. I just found a reference
http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/coleoptera/polyphaga/scarab
that suggest their mutual ancestor Aphrodiites was around in the
lower jurassic. They seem to have dealt with dinosaur dung just as
well as elephant dung.
I also think it the beetles form an integral part of the svannah
ecosystem; without them the dung would not fertilize the soil as
quickly and the open grasslands would not be possible (note the neat
loop here: grasslands suit grazers, grazers produce dung, dung helps
the beetles and makes the grass possible; once started it is
self-supporting).
So, I think the dung beetles have an alibi.
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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