Dave Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University, Graeme Ruxton from the University of St. Andrews, and methane expert Euan Nisbet at the University of London reported that dinosaur flatus may have produced enough methane during the Mesozoic Era to affect the Earth’s climate.
Methane-producing microbes aided the digestion of all dinosaurs just like today’s cows or humans. The large sauropod dinosaurs produced more methane due to their size.
Sauropods were huge relative to other dinosaurs. Depending on the species, sauropods could measure from 100 to 200 feet in length and weighed anywhere from 80 to 240 tons.
The researchers determined that the volume of methane produced by sauropod dinosaurs alone may have been greater than all present day sources of atmospheric methane. The estimate based on archeological and paleontological evidence is a calculation that includes dinosaur size, weight, and estimated population densities.
The researchers estimate the methane released by sauropod dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Era was approximately 520 million metric tons per year. This level of methane production is five to ten times the level of methane produced by today’s ruminant animals and even rivals industrial volumes of methane produced annually today.
