The Poozeum – a Museum for Dinosaur Poop

Williams, Arizona —(Map)

Last May, Arizona got a new museum that focuses on something that many people find disgusting: poop. Not just any poop, but really old poop. So old, in fact, that it has turned into a fossil. The Poozeum is a collection of thousands of examples of “coprolites” – fossils made of poop.

Since coprolites are fossils, they can be millions of years old. When animals pooped long ago, their poop sometimes got covered up by mud, sand, or dirt. Over time, the poop turned to rock. These rocks are called coprolites. There’s no smell or nasty germs – it’s all stone.

The museum is the brainstorm of George Frandsen. He has been collecting coprolites since he was 18, when he found a poo-shaped rock in a shop. He thought it was funny, gross, and interesting all at the same time, so he bought it.

He’s been collecting coprolites ever since. He now has about 8,000 of them.

Mr. Frandsen has had a lot of different jobs over the years, but he’s trained as an archeologist. Several years ago, he put together a website based on his coprolite collection. The site got attention from both regular people and scientists. Last year, he decided to turn his collection into a museum.

The Poozeum, which is free, opened last May in Williams, Arizona. It’s on a famous highway that gets a lot of tourists. The only problem with the museum is that the building is too small to hold all of Mr. Frandsen’s coprolites. Still, he’s managed to fit about 7,000 of them in.

The Poozeum has coprolites not just from the US, but from all over the world, including the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Russia. Some are smaller than a nickel. Others are huge.

The prize exhibit of the museum is the poop that holds the Guinness World Record for the largest coprolite from a carnivore (meat-eater). The coprolite is over 2 feet (0.6 meters) long and 6 inches (15 centimeters) thick. It weighs more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms). Mr. Frandsen says it’s filled with chunks of bone, and is probably from a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Not all of the coprolites are from dinosaurs. The museum features coprolites from many different kinds of animals, including crocodiles, sharks, and even insects.

It actually has farts from insects, too. These were created when bugs got trapped in tree sap. As the bugs died, they released gas, which also got trapped in the sap. Over time, the sap turned into a fossil called amber, preserving the bugs and their farts.

Poop fossils may seem funny or gross, but they can actually tell scientists a lot. Coprolites show what an animal ate and how healthy it was. They can also help scientists learn about the environment at the time the poop was left. Mr. Frandsen says, “Every poop tells you a story about a certain time.”

So should you visit the Poozeum? That’s up to you. If you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. It may not be the best museum in the world, but it might be number two.