Some of the researchers who investigated the physics of why some wombats have cube-shaped poo [and who subsequently won a prize for having done that] have been pursuing the related question of “why”. The University of Georgia broadcast news of how they are faring:
New study finds square feces may deliver information
Most people have a preferred way of communication — phone, text, email — but bare-nosed wombats have an unusual way of relaying information.
The Australian marsupial communicates by … there’s no delicate way to say this … poo.
Led by the University of Georgia’s Scott Carver, a new study published in the Journal of Zoology considers whether the marsupials from down under are communicating through the unusual scat that they deposit in common latrines across southeastern Australia.
The research follows earlier work that won Scott Carver the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize for physics, a satirical prize awarded for science that makes people “laugh, then think.” In that research, Carver and collaborators investigated how wombats create square-shaped poos, finding that the unique shape and structure of the animal’s lower intestine create feces that resemble charcoal briquettes.
“People always say, ‘But why do wombats produce cubes?’” said Carver, corresponding author of the study and a professor in the UGA Odum School of Ecology. “And this research was much more about addressing that. What is the functional role of cube-shaped feces for wombats?” …
The study is: “Deriving the functional significance of olfaction in a solitary non-territorial herbivore: The bare-nosed wombat Vombatus ursinus,” by K. McMahon, G. M. While, D. S. Nichols, A. Edwards, D. L. Hu, and S. Carver.