Interesting Facts

According to a study by British scientists, dinosaurs may have farted their way to extinction. (The study, which appears in the journal Current Biology, estimates that an average argentinosaurus, weighing around 90 tons and measuring 140 feet, munched its way through half a ton of plant material a day, its gut produced clouds of methane. The scientists worked out that this resulted in 520 million tons of methane gas being "released" into the atmosphere every year. Nowadays cows and other farm animals globally contribute up to 100 million tons a year, and many scientists believe that this methane is contributing to global warming and climate change now.) This appears in Fun With English too, thanks to Russell Howard:-

Fossils unearthed at two sites in China reveal that fleas, up to 10 times as large as modern fleas, drank the blood of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. (These Jurassic fleas are believed to be 165 million years old. They had claws on each of their six legs, with tiny teeth on the claws that helped the insects cling to hair shafts, and feathers. I do hope no-one gets the idea of cloning these wee beasties.) Source and icky picture.

Dinosaurs had creches. (The recent discovery of fossilised remains of six infant dinosaurs that died in a volcanic mudflow in China has led researchers to believe that the animals were less than four years old, and probably formed a "creche" composed of babies from at least two different clutches. I wonder what age they had to go to junior school.)