Could methane produced by sauropod dinosaurs have helped drive Mesozoic climate warmth?

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• 作者：David M. Wilkinson¹ ; ^{D.M.Wilkinson@ljmu.ac.uk} ; Euan G. Nisbet² ; Graeme D. Ruxton³
• 刊名：Current Biology
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：2_09609822
• 类别：abs
• 出版时间：8 May, 2012
• 卷：22
• 期：9
• 页码：R292-R293
• 文件大小：63 K

摘要

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Summary

Mesozoic sauropods, like many modern herbivores, are likely to have hosted microbial methanogenic symbionts for the fermentative digestion of their plant food . Today methane from livestock is a significant component of the global methane budget . Sauropod methane emission would probably also have been considerable. Here, we use a simple quantitative approach to estimate the magnitude of such methane production and show that the production of the 鈥榞reenhouse鈥?gas methane by sauropods could have been an important factor in warm Mesozoic climates.