Dinosaur Flatulence Might Have Warmed Prehistoric Climate

Dinosaur Flatulence Might Have Warmed Prehistoric Climate   
The reconstructed head of a Dromaeosaur-like Theropod dinosaur, complete with saliva, is seen after opening of Australia's first permanent dinosaurs exhibition at the Australian Museum, Sydney, March 14, 2008 (file photo)   
Dinosaurs might have contributed to a significant warming of the Earth's climate some 150 million years ago by passing large amounts of heat-trapping methane gas into the atmosphere.

That is the theory being proposed by researchers in Britain, whose new study suggests that huge plant-eating dinosaurs called sauropods pumped more methane into the atmosphere than all of today's natural and industrial sources of methane combined. Sauropods had methane-producing microbes in their bodies that aided digestion by fermenting chewed plant material.