Dung middens, also known as dung hills, are piles of dung

Manure

Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...

 that mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s periodically return to and build up. They are used as a form of territorial marker. A range of animals are known to use them including: steenbok

Steenbok

The Steenbok, Raphicerus campestris, is a common small antelope of southern and eastern Africa. It is sometimes known as the Steinbuck or Steinbok.- Description :...

, hyrax

Hyrax

A hyrax is any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. The rock hyrax Procavia capensis, the yellow-spotted rock hyrax Heterohyrax brucei, the western tree hyrax Dendrohyrax dorsalis, and the southern tree hyrax, Dendrohyrax arboreus live in Africa...

 (The dung beetle genus Dicranocara

Dicranocara

Dicranocara is a genus of Scarabaeidae or scarab beetles in the superfamily Scarabaeoidea. Dicranocara is endemic to the Richtersveld National Park. Three species are known, D. deschodti Frolov and Scholtz, D. tatasensis Deschodt and Scholtz and D. inexpectata Deschodt and Scholtz. Only D...

of the Richtersveld in South western Africa spends its whole lifecycle in close association with hyrax dung middens) and rhinoceros

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....

. Other animals such as beetle

Beetle

Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...

s are attracted to them for a variety of purposes. This can include food as well as a location to find a mate. Dung often contains pollen which means fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

ised dung middens can be used to learn about past climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

s. Paleobotany

Paleobotany

Paleobotany, also spelled as palaeobotany , is the branch of paleontology or paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments , and both the evolutionary history of plants, with a...

 relies on the fact that each ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

 is characterised by certain plants, which in turn act as a proxy

Proxy (climate)

In the study of past climates is known as paleoclimatology, climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct measurements , to enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions that prevailed during much of the Earth's history...

for climate.