What are the white things that look like bird droppings

[Brian James Maguire]

I suspect this is some sort of coral but i would like to check with you guys

[Kane]

Definitely coral. The other bits that look a bit like teeth are cross-sections of crinoid columns.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Solitary rugose "horn" corals. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

The white things that look like bird droppings are bird droppings. However, on this specimen they are bits of shell, crinoids and corals.

[grandpa]

2 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

The white things that look like bird droppings are bird droppings.

Old joke but still quite a hoot. 

In actual fact, the white stuff on top of bird droppings are urea salts (aka kidney waste or "bird urine").  Birds, like reptiles have only one orifice for waste (gut and kidney) disposal, the cloaca.  The dark material of "bird poop" is the gut waste and the "white on top" is the kidney waste.  Not as funny, but accurate.  But then, I bet you already knew that. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

4 hours ago, grandpa said:

But then, I bet you already knew that. 

 

Nope, but I'm pretty sure I didn't want to. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Mark Kmiecik

[grandpa]

9 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Nope, but I'm pretty sure I didn't want to. 

Well then, skip this next fact.

 

The cloaca also serves as the birds' and reptiles' reproductive organ.  Males and females mate by touching cloaca. 

[Sagebrush Steve]

9 hours ago, grandpa said:

The cloaca also serves as the birds' and reptiles' reproductive organ.  Males and females mate by touching cloaca. 

I assume that applies to the rest of the dinosaur family, too?

[grandpa]

I believe it includes all dinos.  Someone with better knowledge may chime in.

 

Here's a Scientific American article that I found that offers some speculation on the subject - but no definitive answer. 

 

LINK TO ARTICLE

[Stingray]

Thanks I’ll file that in things never to use any memory cells for recollection . I do believe I have encountered the first real useless fact on this forum . Days of down time and I come back to read how birds process their bodily fluids.

[grandpa]

3 minutes ago, Stingray said:

Thanks I’ll file that in things never to use any memory cells for recollection . I do believe I have encountered the first real useless fact on this forum .

Sorry.  I have an interest in biology and wildlife, both past and present.  Apologize if this is TMI. 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

TMI ?

 

Coco

[grandpa]

Ah, sorry Coco.

For the international audience unfamiliar with the social media's plethora of English language goobly-gop abbreviations, TMI is short-hand for Too Much Information. 

As a "senior" senior reader, I can understand your confusion with such abbreviations.  There are so many these days.  It further complicates one's being able to decipher the meaning of such abbreviations if the abbreviation is in reference to a foreign language.  I should have spelled it out instead of trying to be "cute".  My parochial perspective blinds me to the needs of the international audience.  I need to do better.  In the meantime, thank goodness for internet searches to help me along when I don't know the abbreviations.  A search on your favorite browser for "TMI meaning" will reveal:

TMI  abbreviation

1. too much information (used to indicate that someone has revealed personal information of an embarrassing nature): informal "each cough was having a rather disastrous effect on my bladder (sorry, TMI!)"

[FossilNerd]

6 hours ago, Stingray said:

Thanks I’ll file that in things never to use any memory cells for recollection . I do believe I have encountered the first real useless fact on this forum . Days of down time and I come back to read how birds process their bodily fluids.

 

6 hours ago, grandpa said:

Sorry.  I have an interest in biology and wildlife, both past and present.  Apologize if this is TMI. 

I don’t think there is such a thing as a “useless” fact. They all have their uses, given the right situation, and this one is rather interesting.  
 

I also don’t think @grandpa should feel the need to apologize. Facts are facts and science is science. Some science is just more glamorous than others. We are a science based forum; he shared a science fact. 
 

Like Tom, I have an interest in biology both past and preset. I already knew about the bird cloaca, but I say THANK YOU to Tom for sharing his wisdom and “useless” fact. Even if it was TMI.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Here is a Tidgy poop with the white urates produced from the kidneys on the end of the gut poop. 

When she just pees the liquid is mostly clear with a little lump of the white "toothpaste". 

In my fossil room, up on the terrace, live a family of Moorish geckos.

There poop looks like this, again with the urates at the end. 

If it doesn't have the white bit, it's either fallen off or it's a mouse or rat dropping! 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

17 hours ago, grandpa said:

Well then, skip this next fact.

 

The cloaca also serves as the birds' and reptiles' reproductive organ.  Males and females mate by touching cloaca. 

Male tortoises, at least, do actually have an organ that extrudes from inside the cloaca for mating. It is a horrible, mushroom-shaped monstrosity. 

Tidgy is a girl, so I nicked this photo from elsewhere.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Tidgy's Dad

[Bobby Rico]

"TFF  is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get” maybe not the best analogy for this thread. 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Thanks @grandpafor the explanation. It is true that the use of acronyms is becoming more and more frequent and that this poses a lot of problems of understanding to non-English speakers.

 

This TMI was very interesting information ! Yes, it is a scientific fact and I am also very interested in nature and animals.

 

That said, I will refrain from commenting on the physical state of my rejections according to my food or health, Even if it’s a scientific fact, that would be TMI !  Did I understand you correctly ?

 

Now, back to the question of OP, to which I cannot make any clarification

 

Coco

Edited September 18, 2023 by Coco

[Mark Kmiecik]

TYFSI, PCAS

 

(thank you for stopping in, please come again soon)