Dinosaur gases 'warmed the Earth'

BBC News ^ | May 7, 2012

[Free ThinkerNY]

Giant dinosaurs could have warmed the planet with their flatulence, say researchers.

British scientists have calculated the methane output of sauropods, including the species known as Brontosaurus.

By scaling up the digestive wind of cows, they estimate that the population of dinosaurs - as a whole - produced 520 million tonnes of gas annually.

They suggest the gas could have been a key factor in the warm climate 150 million years ago.

David Wilkinson from Liverpool John Moore's University, and colleagues from the University of London and the University of Glasgow published their results in the journal Current Biology.

Sauropods, such as Apatosaurus louise (formerly known as Brontosaurus), were super-sized land animals that grazed on vegetation during the Mesozoic Era.

For Dr Wilkinson, it was not the giants that were of interest but the microscopic organisms living inside them.

"The ecology of microbes and their role in the working of our planet are one of my key interests in science," he told BBC Nature.

"Although it's the dinosaur element that captures the popular imagination with this work, actually it is the microbes living in the dinosaurs guts that are making the methane."

Methane is known as a "greenhouse gas" that absorbs infrared radiation from the sun, trapping it in the Earth's atmosphere and leading to increased temperatures.

[driftless2]

Has anyone ever calculated the amount of dinosaurs that would be necessary to create the world’s supply of oil? How much oil would one T-Rex carcass create for instance? How many dinosaurs roamed the world? Surely some egghead somewhere has tried to calculate that.

[tumblindice]

One of the worst offenders, the silent but deadly Snorlaxasaurus:

http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/f/fb/143Snorlax.png

[Foolsgold]

I therefore propose that AGW can be directly attributed to vegetarians, and even more so, VEGANS,

I love VEGANS, having a 24oz Porterhouse for dinner tonight.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

That’s DS

[TexasSecede79366]

Go look down the rabbit hole. This study is going to be used as the difference between dinosaur farts and coal plants.
It's already in the works.

[left that other site]

A porterhouse of that size will produce monstrous farts, but they will not be detrimental to the environment! LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest at the Beach.

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[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Ernest at the Beach. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[BIGLOOK]

It's all part of the show, folks.....

[colorado tanker]

[colorado tanker]