Title:
Humble dung beetles may be ideal DNA detectors for animal surveys
Author:
Michael Price, science journalist in San Diego, California
Published:
Science, 19 February 2021
From the article:
"Biologists wanting to identify the resident creatures of a location, be it nearby woods or a distant mountainside, could soon have new assistants to help them vacuum up a surrounding’s DNA: dung beetles. The guts of these unfussy eaters contain species-identifying mammalian DNA, a study has found, and could provide an easy, low-tech way to catalog regional biodiversity."