What Can the Dung Beetle Teach Us About Nutrition?
Scientists know it as Onthophagus—a type of horned scarab beetle found in just about every part of [...]the world. But you probably know it for what it eats: poop. Whatever else dung beetles are good for—they are super strong, unparalleled navigators, and important plant seed spreaders—they just can’t shake the rep they get for their dietary choices.
In her Boston University lab, biologist Sofía Casasa has trays full of Onthophagus and fridges stocked with their favorite food—cow dung collected from a farm in Lincoln, Mass. An expert in evolutionary developmental biology, she’s studying the insects for clues to how organisms develop and grow. Casasa’s goal is to understand how much of an organism’s appearance—its size, shape, and structure, or morphology—is dictated by its genes, and how much by its environment, particularly what it eats.
With the dung beetles, she’s starting with one question: why do some beetles grow longer horns than others?
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