Bonus material! Since it is Halloween, Link to instructions on how to make a Shai-Halud Halloween costume! http://www.instructables.com/id/Dune-Giant-Sandworm-Shai-Hulud-Costume/
Posted on 10/28/2017 3:25:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Christopher Doughty, faculty member in the School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University... "Theory suggests that large animals are disproportionately important to the spread of fertility across the planet... What better way to test this than to compare fertility in the world during the Cretaceous period -- where sauropods, the largest herbivores to exist, roamed freely -- to the Carboniferous period -- a time in Earth's history before four-legged erbivores evolved." During these two periods, plants were buried faster than they could decompose. As a result, coal was formed. Doughty gathered coal samples from mines throughout the U.S. By measuring the coal elemental concentrations, he found elements needed by plants, like phosphorus, were more abundant and much better distributed during the era of the dinosaurs than the Carboniferous. The data also revealed that elements not needed by plants and animals, such as aluminum, showed no difference, suggesting the herbivores contributed to increased global fertility. According to Doughty, these large animals are important not for the quantity of dung they produce, but for their ability to move long distances across landscapes, effectively mixing the nutrients. By increasing the abundance and distribution of elements like phosphorus, plants grow faster, meaning large herbivores are responsible for producing their own food and contributing to their lush habitats... Simply put, fewer large animals may mean less plant growth."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Bonus material! Since it is Halloween, Link to instructions on how to make a Shai-Halud Halloween costume! http://www.instructables.com/id/Dune-Giant-Sandworm-Shai-Hulud-Costume/
The worms do get around.
I do thank you for the costume instructions. Its pretty neat and original.
Hey, you missed your chance for that grant..
And ants have been around, even longer than uncles.
A much higher CO2 level, but the largest ever herbivores... an interesting conundrum.
Amazing the stuff lurking out on the internet!
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