Wombats are the only animals in the world that poop in the shape of perfect cubes.

In 2019, a scientist named Patricia Yang and her team won a prize for figuring out how wombats make these shapes. They studied wombats in Tasmania and found that the magic happens in the last part of the intestine. While most animals have intestines that squeeze evenly all around, the wombat's gut is different.The walls of a wombat's intestine have two stretchy parts and two stiff parts. As the waste moves through, the stiff parts flatten the sides while the stretchy parts allow the corners to form. This process turns the waste into blocks before it ever leaves the body. A study in the journal Soft Matter in 2021 showed that these walls vary in thickness to create that specific square look.Wombats are also very slow eaters. It can take up to 14 days for them to digest one meal. This long wait allows their bodies to soak up every drop of water, making the poop very dry and hard. This dryness helps the cubes keep their sharp edges once they are outside.A single wombat can make up to 100 of these 2-centimeter cubes every single night. They stack them up high on logs or near their burrows to talk to other wombats through scent. Because the sides are flat, these stinky bricks stay exactly where they are placed instead of rolling down hills.