Just the facts

So, just how glamorous is life here in XXXX's research department? Let me tell you: Today, I researched giant sloth poop. (Clarification: That’s the poop of giant sloths, not oversized excrement.) Because, as fact checkers, sometimes we just need to know what ancient sloth poop is made of. How much carbon? How much nitrogen? How much phosphorous? And could it really be true that researchers found a 5 foot high pile of the stuff in a cave?

This is the kind of research that makes you hope your boss isn’t looking over your shoulder as you peruse, say, smellypoop.com, or as you type “What is poop made of?” into Google.

Why does XXXX care what sloth poop is made of, anyway? The more carbon it contains, the easier it is for scientists to determine its age via radiocarbon dating. And that is important for figuring out exactly when these giant sloths roamed the Earth--and when they disappeared, along with a whole zoo of their supersized "megafauna" friends. So what happened to Earth's Big and Tall department 13,000 or so years ago? Did humans use newfangled spears to kill them all off? Did climate change do them in? Or was the culprit something...cosmic? That's the question in XXXX, which is coming up on March 31.

And, by the way, if you happen to know the composition of sloth poop....Let's talk.