Discovery backs theory oil not 'fossil fuel'I don't know enough to say yeah or nay on this but the whole oil comes from dinosaur thing never really did make sense to me. That's a whole lot of dead animals for each deposit. Did you ever stop to think how much oil and how many deposits there are? How much oil would come from each animal? You're talking massive quantities here. They say plants and plankton, not just dinosaurs, but still.
And if you buried an animal in your backyard, what would happen to it? It would be eaten by bugs and micro-organisms and decay to dust, the bones taking the longest decay. Did they ever demonstrate how oil comes from that or is it just theory?
The following is from the World Book Encyclopedia, 1961, Vol. 14, pages 297-300, quoted on
this website.
Organic Theory. No one really knows how petroleum was formed. Most scientists believe the organic theory. It says that petroleum was formed through millions of years in great oceans that covered many parts of the earth during prehistoric times. Tiny plants and animals lived in shallow water and along the coasts of seas, just as they do today. As these plants and animals died, their remains settled on the muddy bottoms of the oceans. Here, even smaller forms of life called bacteria caused them to decay.
Fine sand and mud, called sediments, drifted down over the plant and animal matter. As these sediments piled up, their great weight pressed them into hard, compact beds, or layers, of sedimentary rock. During this process, bacteria, heat, pressure, and perhaps other natural forces changed the plant and animal remains into oil and natural gas.
Tiny drops of oil and bubbles of gas moved from the mud beds in which they were formed into other sedimentary rocks, usually sandstone or limestone. These porous rocks contain pores, or small openings, through which the oil moved.
Through millions of years, layers of less porous sedimentary rock formed above the rock beds. This rock sealed the oil and gas into underground pools. Later, many of the ancient seas drained away through movements of the earth’s crust, and dry land appeared above the petroleum deposits.
I don't know how reliable that is, just found it in a search, but it agrees with what I've heard before. So, I think the fact is, they don't know. Bottom line. It may not come from dinosaurs after all.
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