Here’s the amazing line from this article: “huge plant-eating dinosaurs called sauropods pumped more methane into the atmosphere than all of today’s natural and industrial sources of methane combined.”

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Dinosaur Flatulence Might Have Warmed Prehistoric Climate

 

 

The reconstructed head of a Dromaeosaur-like Theropod dinosaur, complete with saliva, is seen after opening of Australia's first permanent dinosaurs exhibition at the Australian Museum, Sydney, March 14, 2008 (file photo)

Photo: Reuters

Dinosaurs might have contributed to their own demise by passing large amounts of heat-trapping methane gas into the Earth’s atmosphere, triggering a lethal warming of the planet some 150 million years ago.

 

That is the theory being proposed by researchers in Britain, whose new study suggests that huge plant-eating dinosaurs called sauropods pumped more methane into the atmosphere than all of today’s natural and industrial sources of methane combined.  Sauropods had methane-producing microbes in their bodies that aided digestion by fermenting chewed plant material.

 

The researchers say they did not set out to investigate dinosaur flatulence.  They say the idea arose while they were studying sauropod ecology and wondered whether the reptiles could have emitted enough methane gas to warm Earth’s climate during the Mesozoic period…”

 

Read more here.

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