Dung beetles are beetles that feed on feces. There are three main types of dung beetle – rollers, tunnellers and dwellers – each named for the way the way the beetles use the poop they find. 

Some Fact about dung beetles:

• In relation to its size the dung beetle is the world’s strongest animal! When moving balls of dung, a roller can pull a whopping 1,141 times its own bodyweight. This would be like a a human dragging six full double-decker busses! 

• Some species of dung beetles can bury dung 250 times their own mass in one night 

• Dung beetles are one of the few groups of insects that exhibit parental care for their young

Certain Cephalodesmius dung beetles even mate for life

• The female usually deposits eggs in the dung. When the larvae emerge, they are well-supplied with food

• The dung beetle climb atop his dung sphere to orient himself

Researchers placed tiny hats on the dung beetles, blocking their view of the heavens, and found the dung beetles could only wander aimlessly without being able to see the stars

• Insects rarely show up in the fossil record. But paleontologists have found fossilized dung balls (the size of tennis balls!) from 30 million years ago

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