LONDON – Dinosaurs may have farted themselves to extinction,
according to a new study from British scientists. The
researchers calculated that the prehistoric beasts pumped out
more than 520 million tons (472 million tonnes) of methane a
year -- enough to warm the planet and hasten their own eventual
demise. Until now, an asteroid strike and volcanic activity
around 65 million years ago had seemed the most likely cause of
their extinction. 'These dinosaurs may have produced more
methane than all the modern sources put together.' - Co-
researcher David Wilkinson Giant plant-eating sauropods were
fingered as the key culprits in the study, which appears in the
latest edition of the journal Current Biology. An average
argentinosaurus, weighing around 90 tons (82 tonnes) and
measuring 140 feet (42m), chomped its way through half a ton
(half a tonne) of ferns a day, producing clouds of methane as
the food broke down in its gut. Professor Graeme Ruxton from St.
Andrews University in Scotland and co-researcher David W