No, its not an April Fool’s joke. Britain has indeed opened a museum dedicated to poo. The museum, which is surprisingly not the first of its kind, opened at the Isle of Wight Zoo. The National Poo Museum is fairly small, with feces specimens from only 18 species at the time of its opening. Among the exhibits are samples from cat, owl, meerkat, pigeon, cow, fox, humans, as well as a sample of a 38-million-year old fossilized poo. The dried specimens are encapsulated in glass globes that light up when visitors press a button.

The goal of the museum is to inform visitors about everything we need to know about poo —how bowel movements can tell help indicate health, how the sewer system work, and how scientists are researching into gut bacteria that could trigger “a medical revolution”.

A selection of samples.