Incredible facts
A new study by British scientists states that the extinction of dinosaurs was due to their own gases. Researchers estimate that prehistoric animals released more than 472 million tons of methane per year. This is enough to cause the planet to warm and accelerate their own demise.
Until then, the possible reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago were the fall of a meteorite and a volcanic eruption.
“Dinosaurs released more methane than all existing sources combined,” said David Wilkinson, co-author of the study.
For the study, we studied giant herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs. The average Argentinosaurus weighed about 82 tons and was about 42 m long. He ate about half a ton of ferns a day, producing clouds of methane as food was digested in his intestines.
Professor Graeme Ruxton from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and David Wilkinson from Liverpool John Moores University decided to calculate how many greenhouse gases may have produced a billion dinosaurs during the Mesozoic era, starting 250 million years ago.
A simple mathematical model shows that microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs produced enough methane to have a significant impact on the Mesozoic climate.
The release of 472 million tons of gas can be compared with current natural and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which is 21 times more than the heat retention of carbon dioxide on Earth, which causes global warming. Cows and other farm animals release about 90 million tons of methane per year.