| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Dinosaurs passing wind may have caused climate change |
| 2012-05-07 |
| Probably makes about as much sense as hysterics surrounding CAGW. Huge plant-eating dinosaurs may have produced enough greenhouse gas by breaking wind to alter the Earth's climate, research suggests. Like huge cows, the mighty sauropods would have generated enormous quantities of methane. What is it about the Brits and goofy scientific theories? Sauropods, recognisable by their long necks and tails, were widespread around 150 million years ago. They included some of the largest animals to walk the Earth, such as Diplodocus, which measured 150 feet and weighed up to 45 tonnes. Scientists believe that, just as in cows, methane-producing bacteria aided the digestion of sauropods by fermenting their plant food. ''A simple mathematical model suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,'' said study leader Dr Dave Wilkinson, from Liverpool John Moores University. Then again, may not have. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 We Dinos ate a few too many Beans during the Mesozoic andor Cenozoic Periods, didn't we??? [IIRC BLAZING SADDLES' SLIM "I THINK YOU BOYZ ALREADY HAD ENOUGH" PICKENS CAMPFIRE FLATULENCE SCENE here]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-05-07 23:30 |
| #6 "what do you need it to be for me to get my grant?" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2012-05-07 20:19 |
| #5 Does anyone really know the actually composition of the atmosphere back then, or is that also a matter of 'guesstimate'. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2012-05-07 20:15 |
| #4 the amazing thing about this theory is that the dinosaurs evolved and thrived during warm geologic periods or so it seems; fossilized ferns are found much further toward the pole during the mezosoic than before or after thus logically, one would have expected that any co2 bump from dinosaurs would have prevented the cenosoic cooling but alas, logic isn't the game here; grant money is |
| Posted by: lord garth 2012-05-07 18:09 |
| #3 Prove them wrong... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2012-05-07 17:40 |
| #2 Sure...why not? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2012-05-07 16:43 |
| #1 I'm guessin' these guys had to use both hands to pull this theory out of their posterior. Who needs a high falutin' edumakasion, I can make this stuff up in my sleep. |
| Posted by: Past Master of the Obvious 2012-05-07 15:52 |