Dinosaur Gases Warmed the Earth

Link to BBC Article

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.

I'll admit it, I giggled like a schoolgirl when reading this article. Something about the phrase "dinosaur flatulence" just makes me laugh.

But this may be no laughing matter. Perhaps the climate change that led to mass extinction wasn't caused by a meteor strike after all, but by the methane released by giant sauropods?

What do you think, ATS?

reply to post by smyleegrl

But this may be no laughing matter. Perhaps the climate change that led to mass extinction wasn't caused by a meteor strike after all, but by the methane released by giant sauropods?

There is nothing about the gas causing the extinction of dinosaurs in the article.

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

They are basically saying that back then, the climate was warm because of dinosaurs farting.

I think the whole research is a bit dumb and it basically says or proves nothing at all.

They just made a calculation based on many unknown factors and then base possible conclusions on that.

Stupid dumn scientists want more of our money for more worthless research.

Have you taken your idea from www.telegraph.co.uk...

and added dinasours to it ?

In the past environmentalists, from Lord Stern to Sir Paul McCartney, have urged people to stop eating meat because the methane produced by cattle causes global warming.

Solution: kill every elitist politician. They constantly talk hot air out of their sticking brown mouths.

So you could say the Dinosaurs produced as much if not more "pollution" than the automobiles currently on the planet? I wonder if the Dinosaur President taxed them on it.

So now they want to justify global warming in the past.

Isn't this along similar lines to the great co2, and cow's flatulent contributions of today ?!

The global warming supporters are losing the argument, because the earth has naturally undergone periods of warming, and cooling over time.

So what do they do ?

They reach into the past (pre-historic to boot), to try to rationalise conditions for warming then, that can be translated to a modern day scenario toooooo.....

squeeze every last penny out of us !

Nice work, if you can get it !

reply to post by smyleegrl


hmmm so maybe cattle gases are warming up the earth now? and have you seen some of us americans? we very well could be gassing up this mug also!!!!


Stanky.

Thanks for the interesting replies.

I don't think dinosaur farts caused the extinction either, but did find the article interesting and thought I'd share.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Jeah, thanks for posting, I also find the article interesting, cause it shows how dumb and useless scientists can be if they are trying to somehow justify a blatantly wrong popular viewpoint.

I think id change the title to this thread to Jurassic Farts

So now because the human race is getting as big as dinos the earth is heating up again

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
I think id change the title to this thread to Jurassic Farts

Oh, if only T&C let me do that! That is awesome and completely made my day!!!

reply to post by smyleegrl


I disagree. At one time dinos extensively covered the early earth, so did your run-of-the-mill volcano. It is not unthinkable that a dumb dino would occasionally wander close to a fiery vent, Do a venting job itself such that the gases ignited and the creature became an instant supermarket of fresh meat for the nearby smaller critters.

In this way we can explain the extinction (no pun intended) of the dinos and the sudden proliferation of the littlier carnivores from whence we evolved.

I must say, thank heaven, that the above was a slow process over millions of years. Had it occured within a short span of time, the atmosphere could have become heavily laden with hydrogen gas emitted from the dinos and there could have been a chance of the entire world exploding at once if only one dino cut a big one.

Science always amazes me on the secrets it continually uncovers (and sometimes covers up)..

i'm pretty sure we'll be seeing this on fox news as proof that global warming is a hoax.

i think the study is funny. too bad it will be used as an argument for the big corps from now on. not all scientific theories are brilliant. scientists are always thinking and questioning and unfortunately some of the "studies" or theories are like this one. it's something to laugh about and move on.

does this mean that these scientists have the answer and now we call all just keep on letting the big corporations spew pollution in the air? no. it doesn't.

Many things fart, or at least many things produce methane. Methane is easy to turn into energy. This is why the atmosphere has bacteria that float around and eat methane when they come across it. Same with methane produced underwater or by decaying things. Sure, methane is an effective greenhouse gas, but currently its half life in the atmosphere is something like 12 days due to the bacteria that eat it and the solar radiation that degrades it. The Earth is a self regulating miracle and without some serious, serious imbalances, things will correct themselves in a satisfactory manner. If there is a serious imbalance the Earth will also correct itself, but it usually isn't pretty for a lot of things.

By serious imbalance I don't mean the CO2 we're producing, that is just a tithe of what other, natural, events have produced. I mean the CO2 and other lovely gasses that something like the Siberian traps exploding again would be like. Compared to the past history of Earth we are living in quite a cool spot. This is the coolest of the past four glacial minima we are living in and for long periods of the Earth's history it has had a much higher equilibrium temperature and greenhouse gas level. I'm not saying that what we are dong doesn't have an impact, I am saying that we don't fully understand it and any sensational arguments otherwise that will give powers to bureaucrats and regulators to mess with my life is an argument I will resist.

reply to post by smyleegrl


I read this online earlier and about blew soda pop through my nose laughing!

I'm not sure the validity of the concept because, first, methane dissipates after a few centuries and second, no one was actually there to gauge the flatulence factor of dinos over a period of millions of years.

My first take is that the study was sponsored by Global Warming Inc... or by the Anti-Global Warming Corp to make utter fools of the concept. But, either way, it was good for a midday guffaw, lol.

reply to post by smyleegrl


The amount of "flips" I give, is equivalent to the amount of logic being employed here.

There were barely 300K dinosaurs roaming the planet at the same time, yet that had more of an impact than the 500Million Passenger cars tooling around the planet??

That laugh made my day.
But seriously, imagine all of the seaweed that rots on all the shores of the oceans... I do not think that Dino farts would hold a candle to the amount of methane they produce.... (now, holding a candle to a Dino fart, that would be interesting...)

I think it is as good a theory of climate change as any. It is certainly a giggle causer. I think they (dinosaurs) probably blamed the mammals at the time. Dinosaur,"It was the sloth honey, honest."

reply to post by smyleegrl


Bad idea. Really really bad idea. If farting kills the planet, adds greenhouse gases ... then they're sure to put a global tax on it. And then it really stinks!

So it was dino farts that caused massive extinction huh?

I guess that's just as plausible as some other theories floating around out there.