citruscandy:

jtotheizzoe:

Gassy Dinos Might Have Created Their Own Version of Global Warming

Large, herbivorous creatures have long depended on bacteria living in their gut in order to digest tough, woody plant matter into usable energy. A side effect of that process is the creation of large amounts of methane. Burps, farts, the whole shebang. In fact, a modern cow creates enough methane in an hour to almost blow someone up.

But what about large dinosaurs? Sauropods, the group of immense plant-eaters that includes Brachiosaurus and others, were prone to eating acres of vegetation to support their great size. New research using modern gut bacteria as a model estimates that sauropods, at their prime, could have released 520 million metric tons of gas every year!

That’s important because methane is a potent greenhouse gas, about 25 times better than carbon dioxide at insulating heat. While Fox News would lead you to believe that this could have led to their extinction (which it didn’t, and nowhere did the researchers even hint such a thing, so facepalm), the methane release certainly could have led to a hotter planet.

I hope dinosaurs didn’t have a very good sense of smell.

(above image adapted from Flickr user Anotitian)

FOX FUCKING NEWS