Dino-flatulence turned up the heat

65 million years ago, the Earth not only looked very different, it felt very different as well. Using fossil records, scientists estimate that the planet’s temperature levels were around 10°C higher, and a new study may have found the culprit: dinosaur farts.

When certain animals eat plants or meat, microbes in their stomach help break down the food, aiding digestion. Gas, including methane, is produced during this process and released from the body as flatulence. Some animals produce so much that it can contribute to global warming – for example, total global methane emissions from both natural and man-made sources are currently around 500 million tonnes per year, of which 50 to 100 million tonnes comes from cows alone.

Now, researchers from Liverpool John Moores University, University of London and University of Glasgow have estimated the amount of methane that would have been expelled by plant-eating dinosaurs – a staggering 520 million tonnes. Particularly gassy were the sauropods – long-necked dinosaurs such as brachiosaurus and diplodocus. These gigantic vegetarians are believed to have grazed in herds, with some species growing up to 60 metres long. Other high producers of methane included the duck-billed hadrosaurs and the horned triceratops.

Methane is sometimes referred to as a ‘greenhouse gas’, due to its potential warming effects. A build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere traps heat close to the Earth’s surface by preventing the Sun’s rays being reflected. The high volume of gas produced by these dinosaurs would have had a substantial impact on the climate of the period, causing global temperatures to soar. In fact, the planet was so warm during this period that there was no ice at the north and south poles at all. So, if dinosaurs were still alive today, it’s not just their teeth we’d have to be wary of...

Glossary

Hadrosaurs

a bipedal dinosaur with a bill-like jaw

Sauropods

a suborder of plant-eating dinosaurs with a small head, a long neck and tail. The largest known land animal