• Dinosaurs 'farted' themselves into extinction, British scientists say
    38 replies, posted
[quote] LONDON – Dinosaurs may have farted themselves to extinction, according to a new study from British scientists. The researchers calculated that the prehistoric beasts pumped out more than 520 million tons (472 million tonnes) of methane a year -- enough to warm the planet and hasten their own eventual demise. Until now, an asteroid strike and volcanic activity around 65 million years ago had seemed the most likely cause of their extinction. 'These dinosaurs may have produced more methane than all the modern sources put together.' - Co-researcher David Wilkinson Giant plant-eating sauropods were fingered as the key culprits in the study, which appears in the latest edition of the journal Current Biology. An average argentinosaurus, weighing around 90 tons (82 tonnes) and measuring 140 feet (42m), chomped its way through half a ton (half a tonne) of ferns a day, producing clouds of methane as the food broke down in its gut. LaserSaber: Live out your Jedi fantasies in real life Professor Graeme Ruxton from St. Andrews University in Scotland and co-researcher David Wilkinson, from Liverpool John Moores University, worked out just how much of the greenhouse gas the billions of dinosaurs would have generated during the Mesozoic era, starting 250 million years ago. "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," Wilkinson said. "In fact, our calculations suggest these dinosaurs may have produced more methane than all the modern sources, natural and human, put together." Pursuit of Light: NASA's latest dose of awesome The dinosaur output of 520 million tons (472 million tonnes) is comparable to current natural and man-made emissions of the greenhouse gas, which scientists say is around 21 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat on Earth and causing climate change. Cows and other farm animals globally contribute up to 100 million tons (90 million tonnes) a year of methane. [/quote] Read more: [url]http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/07/dinosaurs-farted-their-way-to-extinction-british-scientists-say/#ixzz1uE1TMPgm[/url]
Did Fox News just admit Global Warming exists?
I bursted in laugher reading the thread's title. Key_in_skillee's avatar didn't help.
Holy shit, it's easy to forget just how fucking huge dinosaurs were.
I love the difference between the BBC's as Fox News' takes on this situation: From the BBC: "Giant dinosaurs could have warmed the planet with their flatulence, say researchers." ([url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17953792[/url]) From Fox News: "Dinosaurs may have farted themselves to extinction, according to a new study from British scientists." They both only got information from the same study and, incidentally, none of the quotes from it on either article mention extinction.
omg they said fart lol!
Did Fox News just admit dinosaurs existed and were not placed by God in the form of fossils to tempt sin?
[quote][b]Giant plant-eating sauropods were fingered[/b][/quote] okay...
I bet Grog, the caveman, would feed his pet dinosaur beans whenever Grog's wife complained about how cold the cave was. "Grog, it's frickin' freezing in here, get Dino cranking!"
Shit-tastical extinction.
[quote]LaserSaber: Live out your Jedi fantasies in real life[/quote] Oh yesss that's what I always wanted [sub]For gods sake take the 30 seconds required to remove the fucking ads out of the articles you are posting jeeeze[/sub]
So global warming killed cold blooded animals? Even assuming that made any sense, and it doesn't, it wouldn't even begin to explain aquatic dinosaurs dying out. They are rather insulated from temperature changes. Even a significant change is unlikely to kill the majority of prehistoric creatures in the ocean. Nothing about this theory makes any sense.
May have contributed to some changes in climate, but I highly doubt this is what killed all the dinosaurs off.
[QUOTE=GunFox;35870334]So global warming killed cold blooded animals? Even assuming that made any sense, and it doesn't, it wouldn't even begin to explain aquatic dinosaurs dying out. They are rather insulated from temperature changes. Even a significant change is unlikely to kill the majority of prehistoric creatures in the ocean. Nothing about this theory makes any sense.[/QUOTE] Shh, it's popular science. You are now like the guy who tells kids there is no Santa Claus.
[video=youtube;dvLfbf_WWyY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvLfbf_WWyY[/video]
[QUOTE=GunFox;35870334]So global warming killed cold blooded animals? Even assuming that made any sense, and it doesn't, it wouldn't even begin to explain aquatic dinosaurs dying out. They are rather insulated from temperature changes. Even a significant change is unlikely to kill the majority of prehistoric creatures in the ocean. Nothing about this theory makes any sense.[/QUOTE] And the asteroid didn't help either.
Can we get some of the Faux News comments on this? I'm genuinely curious to see what the sub-intelligent monkeys that consist of their fan-base on the web have to say.
Sauropods were not major players at the end of the Mesozoic, I mean hell there's only ONE Sauropod known to have existed in North America in the Maastrichtian in a pretty isolated area where it was pretty rare, we only have a few scraps of it to even know it was there at all. On top of that the Maastrichtian wasn't all that hot compared to the rest of Earth's history, there's evidence for permafrost at the poles.
[QUOTE=GunFox;35870334]So global warming killed cold blooded animals? Even assuming that made any sense, and it doesn't, it wouldn't even begin to explain aquatic dinosaurs dying out. They are rather insulated from temperature changes. Even a significant change is unlikely to kill the majority of prehistoric creatures in the ocean. Nothing about this theory makes any sense.[/QUOTE] What cold-blooded animals? The idea that dinosaurs were cold-blooded has been in the minority for years now. It's much more likely that dinosaurs were warm-blooded.
What a rotten way to die.
[QUOTE=Jin;35866242]Did Fox News just admit dinosaurs existed and were not placed by God in the form of fossils to tempt sin?[/QUOTE] They're pointing out the ridiculousness of the study and attacking British scientists by putting them in the spotlight in the title Don't read the comments
[QUOTE=GunFox;35870334]So global warming killed cold blooded animals? Even assuming that made any sense, and it doesn't, it wouldn't even begin to explain aquatic dinosaurs dying out. They are rather insulated from temperature changes. Even a significant change is unlikely to kill the majority of prehistoric creatures in the ocean. Nothing about this theory makes any sense.[/QUOTE] Did you even read the theory? It never mentioned extinction.
Fox completely made up the part about extinction, everything else about this sort of makes sense.
[quote]Giant plant-eating sauropods were fingered as the key culprits in the study[/quote] Veganism killed the Dinosaurs!!!! [editline]8th May 2012[/editline] !!!!!!!!!!!!
[quote]LaserSaber: Live out your Jedi fantasies in real life[/quote] [quote]Pursuit of Light: NASA's latest dose of awesome[/quote] What?
[QUOTE=ijyt;35871940]What cold-blooded animals? The idea that dinosaurs were cold-blooded has been in the minority for years now. It's much more likely that dinosaurs were warm-blooded.[/QUOTE] It has been suggested that they could have had some warm blooded ones, but many of them were of such great size that being warm blooded would have required a ridiculous amount of food in order to simply maintain body temperature. Birds obviously share a lot in common with their distant ancestors, and are warm blooded, so it makes sense. Though crocodiles also share a great deal in common with their larger dinosaur ancestors and are cold blooded. Being warm blooded makes you considerably more flexible, but you also have to consume substantially more food. [QUOTE=NoDachi;35872119]Did you even read the theory? It never mentioned extinction.[/QUOTE] Really? [quote] Dinosaurs may have farted themselves to extinction, according to a new study from British scientists. The researchers calculated that the prehistoric beasts pumped out more than 520 million tons (472 million tonnes) of methane a year -- enough to warm the planet and hasten their own eventual demise. Until now, an asteroid strike and volcanic activity around 65 million years ago had seemed the most likely cause of their extinction. [/quote]
What if Venus had dinosuars as well, but they farted so much that their atmosphere became the way it is today. :v:
Shoulda taken some beano
It's a pretty shaky premise for dinosaur extinction when you can jump from ASTEROID IMPACT to EXCESSIVE FARTING... Poor dinos :(
Even back then I bet they blamed it on the dog
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