An estimation of the annual methane emission by sauropod dinosaurs

Abstract Conservation of energy allows for the evaluation of the metabolism of an animal during its juvenile phase. This permits the estimation of the annual production of methane by the sauropod dinosaur Apatosaurus . Since sauropod dinosaurs had very simple teeth with no grinding surfaces for mastication, they are believed to have used the actions of microbial fauna in their digestive track to break down their ingested food. Methane is produced in such digestion. The calculation uses the production of methane by modern dairy cattle as a model for sauropod dinosaurs. Accounting for the difference in metabolism allows one to scale the methane production of dairy cattle to the much larger sauropod dinosaurs. Since the identity of the sauropod microfauna is unknown, the calculation is viewed as an order of magnitude estimation.