The concept of global warming has been an attention-grabbing topic for quite some time now. There’s always another discovery that either backs it or dismisses it. Countless studies have been conducted, and various causes and effects discovered.
There is a new theory to be added to the already extensive list of causes for global warming: Dinosaur Farts. A group of specialists from institutions which include the University of Zurich and the Liverpool John Moores University have proposed that the methane produced by these prehistoric beasts had a significant contribution to the overall rise in atmospheric temperature, millions of years ago.
The main culprits in the dinosaur world are apparently the sauropods, which include massive herbivores such as the Brachiosaurus and the Diplodocus. The digestive tracts in such creatures are believed to have contained microbes to help in food digestion, which produced the copious amounts of methane. These giant, plant-eating dinosaurs could have produced methane in a similar way to how cows and other livestock do nowadays. Researchers have found that the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by livestock exceeds the amount produced by cars. However, while it is estimated that livestock contribute 50 to 100 million metric tons of methane per year, the sauropods are thought to have produced up to 520 million. That’s over five times that of all the cows in the world. Actually, it’s more than all of the methane produced annually on Earth in our present day. Besides the astronomical amount of gas produced, methane is also 23 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. With the dinosaurs producing 20 tons each, on a daily basis, it is quite probable that they really did affect the global climate with their flatulence.
Admittedly, as with most studies conducted on prehistoric organisms, the findings are very uncertain. For one thing, we cannot be sure that the dinosaurs’ digestive systems functioned the way we think they did. The values can only be mere estimates, based on previous research and assumptions. For example, the calculations were done based on the assumption that their methane production was similar to that of a reptile, or mammal. However, it has been thought that dinosaurs are closer related to birds, so that assumption (though well-reasoned) may be invalid.
Ironically, whether or not they really emitted such gases in their lifetime, their dead bodies now make up for it, as they help run the majority of our motorized vehicles.
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