- Joined
- Mar 4, 2011
- Messages
- 4
Hi All,
A slightly odd request, but I thought you'd be the people to know... I've
got some strange fossil remains that make me wonder if we've got the
leftovers of a benthic nautiloid's dinner! Something in the Middle
Ordovician has been selectively catching carpoid echinoderms and
occasionally trilobites, and leaving piles of their remains in one spot.
There is nothing resembling a faecal pellet - just acumulations of bits.
So... 1) do octopus produce recognisable pellets, or just amorphous
excretions? 2) do they have preferred feeding posts that they return to? 3)
if their prey had something really robust (e.g. crab claws), would it spit
those bits out whole?
Many thanks - there's a pers. comm. in the paper for the most useful reply!
Joe Botting
A slightly odd request, but I thought you'd be the people to know... I've
got some strange fossil remains that make me wonder if we've got the
leftovers of a benthic nautiloid's dinner! Something in the Middle
Ordovician has been selectively catching carpoid echinoderms and
occasionally trilobites, and leaving piles of their remains in one spot.
There is nothing resembling a faecal pellet - just acumulations of bits.
So... 1) do octopus produce recognisable pellets, or just amorphous
excretions? 2) do they have preferred feeding posts that they return to? 3)
if their prey had something really robust (e.g. crab claws), would it spit
those bits out whole?
Many thanks - there's a pers. comm. in the paper for the most useful reply!
Joe Botting