Leading Scientists Now Blaming Global Warming on Dinosaur Flatulence

Leading scientists are now saying that dinosaur flatulence may have been partially responsible for climate change in pre-historic times.  Some are going so far as to say that it may have been so catastrophic that it helped lead to the dinosaur's eventual extinction.

The Daily Mail elaborates:

Professor Graeme Ruxton of St Andrews University, Scotland, said the giant animals spent 150 [million] years emitting the potent global warming gas, methane.

Large plant-eating sauropods would have been the main culprits because of the huge amounts of greenery they consumed.

The team calculated the animals would have collectively produced more than 520m tons of methane a year - more than all today's modern sources put together.

It is thought these huge amounts could easily have been enough to warm the planet.

[...]

One of the animals, a 90-ton argentinosaurus, which measured 140ft in length, would have consumed at least half a ton of food in one day.

After breaking down in the animal's stomach it would have produced thousands of [liters] of the greenhouse gas compared with a modern cow which only produces 200 [liters] of methane daily.

'In fact, our calculations suggest these dinosaurs may have produced more methane than all the modern sources, natural and human, put together,' said [Ruxton's co-researcher David] Wilkinson to the Sunday Times.

While the study may or may not be scientifically accurate, it is undeniably good comedy for global warming skeptics.

The Ottawa Citizen gravely concludes: "Some key questions remain: are the asteroid strike and upsurge in volcanic activity that occurred 65 million years ago still the most likely cause of dinosaur extinction? Or did the dinosaurs help to wipe themselves out by changing the climate?"

"The implications for the human race are obvious."