They solved the mystery of the cubic shape of the excr …

An international team of scientists has discovered that the unusually uniform geometric shape of the droppings of the vombatid, a marsupial native to Australia known as wombat, forms in the intestines and not at the exit point as previously thought, according to a study published on Sciencemag.org.

“Common wombats (Vombatus ursinus) are renowned for producing distinctive cube-shaped droppings. This ability to train them relatively uniform and clean is unique in the animal kingdomScott Carver of the University of Tasmania said in a statement from this Australian institution.

Carver hizo accidental discovery during dissection of a cadaver of a wombat as part of his primary research into treating mange in these short-legged bear-like marsupials.

Explaining the results of this research published in Soft Matter magazine, Carver explained that wombats deposit their droppings “in important places of their territory, like around a rock or a log, to communicate with each other”. “Our research revealed that these cubes form in the last 17% of the colon,” he explained.

The team of Australian and American scientists, which received the satirical Ig Nobel Prize for “research that makes you laugh then think” in 2019, discovered through a combination of laboratory tests and mathematical modeling, that there are two rigid and two more flexible regions around the wombat’s intestine.

The combination of dissection of the stool in the distal colon and muscle contractions form the regular size and corners of the stool, said the statement from the University of Tasmania.

The wombat intestine is about 10 meters long, that is, 10 times the body length of a typical wombat, and its digestive process takes four times longer than in a human being to be able to extract all the nutritional content possible, as well as its water, from so that his feces are drier than that of a man.

Carver said the discovery highlights a whole new way of making cubes – inside a flexible tube – and that the results could be applied to other areas including manufacturing, clinical pathology and digestive health.

“Cubing can help us understand the hydration status of wombats, because their droppings may appear less cubic in more humid conditions. It also shows how intestinal stiffness can produce smooth sides as a hallmark of pathology, ”said the ecology expert from the University of Tasmania.