By Jeff Parkinson
Think your car is responsible for global warming? According to scientists there’s a bigger answer, & I mean much bigger.
Findings published in the Monday edition of science magazine Current Biology state that during the “hot, wet Mesozoic era”, sauropod dinosaurs weighing as much as 220 tonnes (485000 lbs.) standing 60’ tall roamed the earth like giant cows munching on foliage and blasting massive doses of methane into the atmosphere.
This helps explain why the Mesozoic era was so hot & wet.
“Our calculations suggest that these dinosaurs could have produced more methane than all modern sources – both natural and man-made – put together,” said researcher Dave Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with as much as 25 times the climate-warming potential of carbon dioxide, & is enough of a factor in modern global warming that scientists have worked to figure out how much methane is emitted by cows, sheep and other plant-eating animals.
But that may be for not as it will never compare to the noxious output of the sauropod who wandered about in large numbers ripping big ones at will.
On behalf of all of us who barely had to touch a shovel last winter, I extend my heartfelt thanks to the mighty sauropod.
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