ORIGINAL PAPER Scale insect larvae preserved in vertebrate coprolites (Le Quesnoy, France, Lower Eocene): paleoecological insights Ninon Robin 1 & Imre Foldi 2 & Marc Godinot 1,3 & Gilles Petit 1 Received: 20 July 2016 /Revised: 14 September 2016 /Accepted: 17 September 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract Coprolites of terrestrial vertebrates from the Sparnacian Le Quesnoy locality (Ypresian, Eocene, MP7, 53 Ma; Oise, France) were examined for possible parasitic hel- minth eggs. The extraction of the coprolite components was performed by a weak acetolyse and a slide mounting in glyc- erin. This long examination did not reveal paleoparasite re- mains, which may be explained through several arguments. However, some pollen grains, some enigmatic components, and two well-preserved first-instar cochineal nymphs (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea) were evidenced in coprolites. Identified as Coccidae, these larvae are the earliest stage of the scale insect development ever reported as fossil, revealing the specific environment of preservation that fossil- ized scats may provide. These observations, combined to the coprolites morphotype, enable to ascribe the fossil scats producer to a small herbivorous mammal present in the de- posit (early perissodactyls or Plesiadapidae). Regarding the ecology of extant representatives of Coccidae, this mammal was a likely foliage consumer, and the abundant Juglandaceae and/or Tiliaceae from Le Quesnoy might have lived parasit- ized by scale insects. These Early Eocene parasites had an already well-established dissemination strategy, with preva- lent minute first-instar larvae. The herein performed extraction technique appears well-suited for the study of carbonate cop- rolites and could certainly be useful for evidencing other kind of microorganisms (including internal parasites). Keywords Coprolites . Coccidae . Eocene . Sparnacian . Le Quesnoy . Palaeoecology Introduction The present study refers to Bcoprolite^ in the meaning used by Hunt and Lucas 2012, i.e., fossil feces of terrestrial and aquat- ic animals. Since the first discovery of coprolites by Buckland in 1822, their study has undergone an exponential growth over the last 30 years. In 2012, Hunt and Lucas pointed several hundreds of publications corresponding to archeological and paleontological approaches. These studies evidenced their particular interest in documenting paleoecological and tapho- nomic aspects. As for archeology (Pleistocene to present), Reinhard and Vaughn (1992) listed all the biological components found in human coprolites. These are viruses, bacteria, fungi, pollen, phytoliths, eggs, and larvae of parasitic helminths, seeds, leaves, feathers, vertebrate bones, scales, hair, shell fragments, insects, and their remains, ticks fleas, and lice. These elements may document some environmental or climatic aspects, any mode of nutrition, and some species relationships like Communicated by: Sven Thatje Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00114-016-1412-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Ninon Robin ninon.robin@edu.mnhn.fr Imre Foldi foldi@mnhn.fr Marc Godinot godinot@mnhn.fr 1 Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, UPMC, Sorbonne Université, UMR 7207 CR2P, 8 rue Buffon, CP 38, 75005 Paris, France 2 Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, UMR 7205, CP50, Entomologie, Paris, France 3 École Pratique des Hautes Études, Laboratoire Évolution des Primates, Paris, France Sci Nat DOI 10.1007/s00114-016-1412-x