William Buckland’s Poo Table

In the collection of the Lyme Regis Museum in England is a beautiful 19th century tabletop made of delicate, inset stones. The rub is that these stones are… (spoiler alert)... coprolite, or fossilized feces. Amanda and Johanna discuss the man who had this table made, an eccentric scientist named William Buckland, who was a key figure in the early history of paleontology.

For more information about William Buckland’s table, see:

• https://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/related-article/bucklands-coprolite-table/
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-father-and-son-who-ate-every-animal-possible
• “The man who tried to eat everything on Earth” from the Royal Society https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-fcaKO_5sk
• https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history/unusual-diet-18th-century-geologist-william-buckland
• https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/05/19/me-and-my-monkey/
• On the Kirkdale Cave: https://scarboroughmuseumsandgalleries.org.uk/object/kirkdale-cave/
• For more on Buckland’s son, Frank, see: “The Man Who Ate the Zoo” by Richard Girling

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