According to a new study, there may be another cause to global warming - dinosaurs with burps and passing gas.

Yep, you read that right...gassy dinosaurs added to hotter temperatures.

Potty  humor just got prehistoric. A new study suggests that dinosaurs may  have helped keep an already overheated world warmer with their  flatulence and burps 200 million years ago.

The research  published Monday in Current Biology suggests that large dinosaurs made a  significant contribution to the greenhouse effect back then. Study  author David Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University in England  estimated that about 570 million tons of methane came from dinosaurs.  That's similar to total atmospheric levels of methane today produced by  livestock, farming and industry. Cows alone now produce nearly 100 tons a  year of methane.

The study looks at the biggest -- and  presumably gassiest -- dinosaurs, called sauropods. These were the  long-necked plant eaters that munched on the top of trees. They were  large animals that had food fermenting in their guts for long periods of  time because of their giant size, said University of Maryland  paleontologist Thomas Holtz, who wasn't part of the study.

Wilkinson  said dinosaur gas was just one factor at a time when the world was  quite tropical, about 18 degrees warmer than now (10 degrees Celsius).  But he said some in the media and blogosphere have misinterpreted his  study to say it was the main cause of ancient warming. Wilkinson said it  was only of the causes, but dinosaur gas "is big enough to be a  measurable effect," he said in a phone interview.

What caused the  ancient pre-human world to be so hot -- just the way the dinosaurs  needed it -- was a variety of factors. Volcanoes spewed much more  greenhouse gases than now, Holtz said. Swamps, water currents, shallow  seas and plentiful plankton combined to raise greenhouse gas levels far  higher than today, he said.

http://indystar.com/article/20120507/NEWS01/205070349/1001/NEWS

So there you have it folks...the greenhouse gas effect predates humans by a year or two...LOL

There  were others who have said the study did not validate the theory that  dinosaurs were mainly responsible for the greenhouse gas effect.

From  the Cornfield, looks like it's time to start feeding all those bovines  around the world with Beano...you know how it goes...feed those cows so  there Be No Gas...LOL