A gigantic “communal latrine” created at the dawn of the dinosaurs has been unearthed in Argentina.

Thousands of fossilised poos left by rhino-like megaherbivores were found clustered together, scientists say.

The 240-million-year-old site is the “world’s oldest public toilet” and the first evidence that ancient reptiles shared collective dumping grounds.

The dung contains clues to prehistoric diet, disease and vegetation says a study in Scientific Reports.

….The perpetrator was Dinodontosaurus, an eight-foot-long megaherbivore similar to modern rhinos.

These animals were dicynodonts – large, mammal-like reptiles common in the Triassic period when the first dinosaurs began to emerge.

….A density of 94 poos per square metre was recorded by the researchers. And the excrement was spread across patches 900 square metres in size.

Prehistoric coprolites are nothing new, but it is extremely rare to find an accumulation as old and substantial as this one – because faeces degrade so easily.

A sheet of volcanic ash has preserved the ancient dung piles “like Pompeii”, said Dr Fiorelli.

The coprolites are like time capsules.

“When cracked open they reveal fragments of extinct plants, fungi, and gut parasites,” said Martin Hechenleitner, a fellow author on the study.

Full Report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25126333