Why wombats have square poo

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Travel My Hometown In L. Using laboratory testing and mathematical models, a team of researchers found there are two stiff and two flexible areas around the circumference of the wombat intestine. The intestine, at 33 feet long, is around 10 times the length of a wombat's body. Read More. Our research found that these cubes are formed within the last 17 percent of the colon intestine," he said.

The researchers say the distinctive cube shape of wombat poop is caused as a result of the drying of the faeces in the colon, and muscular contractions, which form the uniform size and corners of the poop. Giant wombat-like creatures, the size of black bears, once walked the earth. After studying the digestive tracts of wombats put down after road accidents in Tasmania, a team led by Dr Yang presented its findings at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics' annual meeting in Atlanta.

The team compared the wombat intestines to pig intestines by inserting a balloon into the animals' digestive tracts to see how it stretched to fit the balloon. This, the scientists explain, resulted in 2cm 0. The marsupial then stacks the cubes - the higher the better so as to communicate with and attract other wombats. Now we have this third method," Dr Yang said.

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