A good friend, Chloe, who did a great blog on ocean acidification a few months ago, posted something on facebook that caught my eye:
Now this is an artist (cartoonist) impression which is totally unrelated to the article... but somehow (with the power of imagination!) reflects what the BBC news article says, dinosaurs farted so much, they effected the climate, 'Jurrasogenic' climate change? Maybe not...
Sarupods (large diplodicus like dinosaurs) had huge amounts of bacteria in their stomachs (much like today's cows and ruminants) and enterically fermented what they ate, producing noxious dino-farts! It is estimated that these fart-machines produced 520 million tonnes of methane (as we know, a very potent GHG). However, it should be questioned just how it is possible to estimate an arbitrary number, in fact, it is much like what the total annual methane emission are currently (500 M tonnes). These statistics would be based on numbers of dinosaurs, diet, average methane production per unit food, and how much (and of what quality) food they ate.
1) We don't know how many dinosaurs there were at any one point in time
2) We can't compare current dinosaur enteric fermentation rates to prehistoric one because we will never be able to directly measure the (you kind of need a dinosaur in a confined space... oh and a live one helps too!).
3) The signal of these gas signitures would have to be discerned from other natural processes going on at the time (no disrespect, don't we all have better time periods to focus on, like the here and now, or the anthropocene!).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17953792
To be frank, this article does have sound rationale for making a statement, after all, dinosaurs were multicellular organisms, and produced bi-products from digestion/respiration which included some GHGs. However, to quantify is to dig a whole back to yesterday... pointless.
Please read the article yourself, your opinion should be formed by your own judgements and perspectives on evidence. With exams in two days (2 consecutive days!) I know I should be revising for them right about now... but being in the past with a bunch of farting reptiles doesn't seem that bad with respect!
