By Peg West
Grand Valley State University

A Grand Valley alumna was part of a research team that helped unlock at least some of the long-held mystery about the droppings of the wombat: Why are they shaped like cubes?

It turns out the Australian marsupial actually forms the unusual shape in its digestive system, a discovery that led to the research team, including alumna Alynn Martin, ’14, being recognized with an Ig Nobel Prize. 

The annual awards are presented each September at Harvard University to honor “achievements that make people laugh and then think,” according to the organizers’ website.

Other winners this year studied how much saliva a 5-year-old produces and whether pizza consumption protects against illness (apparently only if it’s made in Italy). The stated goal of the awards is to honor the unusual and imaginative in scientific discovery, and Martin embraced that spirit.

“It’s not going to change anybody’s life but it’s a great little piece of information that we didn’t know before,” said Martin, who earned a master’s degree in biology at Grand Valley.

Martin’s part in the wombat waste discovery came during her time working on a doctorate in ecology at the University of Tasmania in Australia. She was working with researcher Scott Carver on wombats and disease when they examined a wombat cadaver. That’s when they discovered the cubic waste in the intestine.

The team sent cadavers to colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology for further analysis, such as the dimensions and elasticity of the intestine. All of the researchers were part of the award.

Aside from this interesting discovery about wombats, Martin has developed an affinity for the creatures that survive on grasses and roots (a dry diet that she said may also play a role in their waste formation).

First of all, they’re inarguably cute. Martin described them as burrowing marsupials with pouches specially configured to protect their young from the kicked-up dirt from digging. She also noted that wombats seem to play an unwarranted second fiddle to their fellow Australian marsupial and close relation, the koala.

She was fascinated by these animals whom she described as charismatic and surprisingly regimented. “Working in the field, you could see they were creatures of habit. It’s incredible that for wild animals that can go anywhere and do anything they pretty much stick to a routine,” she said.

Since receiving her doctorate, Martin has gone on to work in Montana with the U.S. Geological Survey to assess the impacts of disease on wild big horn sheep. 

Studying disease in wild animals is Martin’s life passion and part of what brought her to Grand Valley, where she studied under Amy Russell, associate professor of biology. Martin, who researched tricolored bats while at Grand Valley, credits Russell with providing the foundation for understanding population genetics as well as research training that is useful every day.

Russell said Martin, her first graduate student, is smart and passionate.

“I remember her being tremendously curious and just always wanting to be out in nature and to learn new things,” Russell said.