The large, brown seeds of a South African grass look and smell just like antelope droppings. Thanks to this stinky disguise, the plant attracts dung beetles, who then roll and bury the seeds. While ...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct. 6 (UPI) --The quest for survival inspires plants and animals to adopt all sorts of bizarre tactics. One of those tactics is "fecal mimicry." For the African plant ...

The seeds of a South African plant (pictured, top) trick dung beetles into dispersing them by mimicking the appearance and odour of antelope faeces (pictured, bottom). Jeremy Midgley at the University ...

As Midgley noted, in a press release that accompanied the Ceratocaryum study, “We still have much to learn about the dynamics of such fecal mimicry.” He is curious, for instance, how the hoax would ...