Scientists unravel secret of cube-shaped wombat faeces

Researchers investigate why excrement emerges in awkward-shaped blocks

Of all the many mysteries that surround the common wombat, it is hard to find one as baffling as its ability - broadly acknowledged as unique in the natural world - to produce faeces shaped like cubes.

Why the pudgy marsupials might benefit from six-faced faeces is generally agreed upon: wombats mark their territorial borders with fragrant piles of poo and the larger the piles the better. With die-shaped dung, wombats boost the odds that their droppings, deposited near burrow entrances, prominent rocks, raised ground and logs, will not roll away. That, at least, is the thinking.