If like me you’ve been wondering why wombat feces were cubic, this article explains it:
To solve the puzzle, the team examined the digestive tracts of wombats that had to be euthanized following vehicle collisions in Tasmania, Australia.
The wombat takes about two weeks to digest its food and researchers found that as faeces move into the final 8% of the intestine, it changes from a liquid-like state into solid matter. At that stage the dung takes on the shape of separated cubes measuring about two centimeters in length.
By inflating the intestine with a long balloon, the researchers found that the wombats’ intestine walls stretch unevenly, allowing for the formation of the cube shapes.
“The local strain varies from 20% at the cube’s corners to 75% at its edges,” the team said. “Thus, the intestine stretches preferentially at the walls to facilitate cube formation.”
or, in other words, unless your intestine wals stretch unevenly, you probably won’t be able to manage this feat yourself. Although I can imagine contests among college students.
Another fascinating fact about life Down Under I never knew about until I read your blog. Similar in weirdness to the recently-extinct gastric-brooding frog they are now try to resurrect.