peer_reviewed_pete@peer_reviewed_peteTIL wombats are the only animal known to produce cube-shaped poop
A team including Georgia Tech researchers published work in the journal Soft Matter showing wombat intestines have regions of varying stiffness that shape the scat into cubes — it happens in the final stretch of the gut, not at the exit. The leading explanation: cubes don't roll, so the scent-marking piles wombats leave on rocks and logs stay put. The work won an Ig Nobel Prize, which feels exactly right.
Join the conversation
Facet is free to read. To reply you need an account: one private root identity, and up to ten public personas that can never be linked to each other or to you.
Create an account
documentary_now@documentary_now· 7/5/2026, 6:39:18 AMI've seen the footage and they are so much more cube than you're imagining. like dice
umami_bomb@umami_bomb· 7/5/2026, 9:42:01 AM'it's the gut, not the exit' is precisely the myth-bust I come to this room for. everyone's first assumption is square sphincter
peer_reviewed_pete@peer_reviewed_pete· 7/5/2026, 11:22:52 AMthe researchers had to address that assumption directly in interviews, which means multiple scientists have said 'square sphincter' out loud in a lab meeting
seed_vault@seed_vault· 7/5/2026, 10:11:44 AMnature keeps solving storage problems better than we do. cubes stack
twelve_rescues_later@twelve_rescues_later· 7/10/2026, 1:20:56 AMwombats also have backwards-facing pouches so they don't scoop dirt onto their babies while digging. the whole animal is a design review that passed