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The Dinosaur Extinction - go figure
outfctrl
Member UncommonPosts: 3,619
I was browsing a news website and went to the scientific section and came across this.
No, it wasn't an asteroid:
Dinosaurs 'gassed' themselves into extinction, British scientists say
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.
Gave me an early morning chuckle
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Comments
Their next theory will be on the big bang...
I didn't realize non-mammels produced gas, at least not in large quantities.
Extinction, huh? Well this is a real wake up call for me to open my windows whenever possible.
All animals on Earth use basically the same chemical processes for digesting food. Herbivores end up producing a LOT of methane as part of that cycle, carnivores very little. In addition, warm blooded creatures have to eat more, and more often than their counterparts, leading to an increase in waste, gas included.
Unlike modern reptiles which are almost all cold blooded carnivores, dinosaurs were primarily warm blooded herbivores. So yes, there's going to be a bit of a difference between the two.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
Were there that many dinosaurs to cause that much Methane? I mean with the oceans, winds and other factors, how in earth can that much methane be harmful?
I know it's just a theory, but come on. That seems so far fetched.
My God, the sound alone coming from one of those beast fart must have shaken the trees and heard from great distances. LOL
The next Jurassic Park movie is gonna be weird!
We've talked before about CO2 and global warming. While there are... issues I won't go into detail here with CO2 being a serious cause of climate change, methane definitely is. When it comes to greenhouse gases, methane is 21-23 times more effective at trapping heat than CO2.
In any case, estimates vary, but a thousand pound modern ruminant produces between 200 and 500 liters of methane per day, mostly in belches. An Apatosaurus weighed in at about 70 times that weight, and traveled in large herds much like modern cattle. I can't testify about the noise they'd make in that fashion, but they might want to bring back the "retired" name for them of Brontosaurus, meaning thunder lizard.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
Quick, someone send this to the Mythbusters!
The Dinosaurs did it to themselves! Do we want to follow suit?
If y'all would stop drinking milk, eating beef etc we could save the earth!
Oh, and lest you escape personal responsibility and guilt for the global tragedy that is global warming... Stop Farting.
LMAO!
If you cut it too short you can always nail a piece on the end.
If you cut it too long then what the hell are you gonna do?
12.5.12
1. dinosaurs did NOT go extinct, many species are still alive today. (e.g. birds, reptiles, fish lizards)
2. "dinosaurs" LARGELY ruled earth for hundreds of Millions of years. (i.e. from the Pangaea-Triassic through the Cretaceous periods of the Mesozoic Era, -250M to -65M years ago)
3. AND the dinosaur evolution is marked by two severe Extinctions in Earth's history (i.e. following the multicellular proliferation through the Paleozoic Era [540-250 M years ago], the mysterious Permian Extinction [wiped out +95% all marine life and +70% land life] and the lesser event the Chicxulub-KT Extinction [wiped out +50% of plant and animal life]).
4. There have been at least FIVE serious extinction events in Earth's history: the Permian-Triassic (-251M), the Devonian-Carboniferous (-416 to -360M), the three lesser events, the Ordovician-Silurian (-450M to -444M), the Triassic-Jurassic (-200M) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary (-65M aka KT).
5. Predatory Homo sapiens (latin knowing man... the last surviving species of the Home genus) on the other hand, with a mere survival of aprox 200,000 years (no documented "human" knowledge before the Global Maximum 21 to 15K yrs ago), has only "ruled" the earth for the last 200 years. (ruled in the sense of seriously destroying the ecosystem while doing nothing to promote ongoing life therein)
Preceded by Homo erectus (Asia, Africa and Europe), Neanderthals (Europe and Asia) and Australopithecines (Africa 2M yrs ago).
edit
PS there are even some human reptiles, especially from outside this solar system.
Earth is NOT the ONLY PLACE in this Universe with Life!
Bhug and Korgborg, political discussions are unfortunately no longer allowed on this website, I suggest that this gets dropped before a mod locks the thread.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
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"political discussions are unfortunately no longer allowed"
Political discussion is commentary or criticism that is specific of or relevant to politics (the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments).
My reply to Korgborg was not about "politics" it was about the bad science he tried to pass off apparently in an attempt to discredit my post.
Unless mmorpg.com now lumps academics and discussion about RL (Real Life) science (part of academics) as political, i fail to see where my post nor reply to korgborg crossed a line into political discussion.
I have not even begun to discuss the bad science in the May 8 issue of Current Biology that made headlines last week nor the conclusion derived from the article (i.e. that methane produced by dinosaurs contributed to global warming) has been incorrectly misrepresented as dinosaurs farted themselves into extinction by media.