WILLIAMS, Ariz. In northern Arizona, a new museum is capturing the curiosity of visitors with an unusual and fascinating exhibit: fossilized poop. The Poozeum, which opened in May in the town of Williams, tells the stories of ancient animals through their coprolites — fossilized feces from millions of years ago.
The museum, located along Route 66 and known for its Wild West shows, wildlife attractions, and the railway to Grand Canyon National Park, features over 7,000 specimens. These range from tiny termite droppings to a massive 20-pound (9-kilogram) specimen.
The Poozeum’s bright green sign, featuring a cartoon T. rex on a toilet, grabs attention among the neon lights and 1950s music of neighboring businesses. Inside, display cases line the walls, filled with coprolites that provide insights into the diets and behaviors of prehistoric creatures.
George Frandsen, the museum’s president and curator, began his collection at 18 when he bought his first piece of fossilized feces in Moab, Utah. “It was funny. It was gross,” he said. “But I learned very quickly it could tell us so much about our prehistoric past and how important they are to the fossil record.”
One highlight of Frandsen’s collection is a Guinness World Record-holding coprolite, believed to be from a Tyrannosaurus rex. Measuring over 2 feet (61 centimeters) long and 6 inches (15 centimeters) wide, it was discovered on a private ranch in South Dakota in 2019. Frandsen also holds the record for the largest certified coprolite collection, with 1,277 pieces verified in 2015 at the South Florida Museum.
Coprolites, while not tremendously common, can make up a significant portion of fossils found at some sites. Anthony Fiorillo, executive director of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, explained that identifying coprolites can be challenging. Sometimes, specimens that appeared to be coprolites were later reclassified as something else.
“There’s a number of sedimentary processes that can produce an extrusion of soft mud to a different layer,” Fiorillo said. “So think about your toothpaste, for example. When you squeeze it, there can be some striations on that toothpaste.”
Location, shape, size, and the presence of materials like bones or plants can help determine if something is a coprolite, though identifying the specific creature that produced it can be more difficult. “I think the majority of us would say, let’s pump the brakes on that and just be happy if we could determine carnivore, herbivore, and then look at possibly those food cycles within each of those broad groups,” Fiorillo said.
Fossil enthusiast Brandee Reynolds, who recently visited the Poozeum with her husband, expressed her excitement about the museum’s unique exhibits. “I mostly find sharp teeth and things like that,” she said. “I haven’t really found a whole lot of coprolite, but who doesn’t love coprolite?”
Frandsen’s collection, now at about 8,000 specimens, is too large to be fully displayed at the museum, so some pieces are featured online. Visitors need not worry about any smell or germs, as those evaporated millions of years ago when the feces were covered with sediment and replaced by minerals, making them rock-hard.
Fiorillo, a trained paleontologist and author of books on dinosaurs, hopes rare fossils that can enhance understanding of the prehistoric world are accessible to researchers and the public. He points to sites like Wyoming’s Fossil Basin, where the public can hunt for fossilized fish, plants, and coprolites, and learn about paleontology at Fossil Butte National Monument.
If a child goes home inspired after finding a fossil or seeing one on display at a museum, Fiorillo said, “Maybe they’ll be the next generation.”
