this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024

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812

The circle of life (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by HootinNHollerin to c/[email protected]

57 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Ackchually, oil is mostly from plant matter.

[–] dohpaz42 52 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

TIL

Does Oil Come From Dinosaur Fossils?

It’s a commonly spread fiction that oil comes from dinosaurs because when people hear fossils, their brains immediately jump to dinosaurs. However, that’s not the case.

The truth may be less exciting to some, but oil and other fossil fuels are not actually formed from the remains of dinosaurs. The oil we’re drilling and pumping to the surface as fuel is formed from diatoms, small organisms such as algae and bacteria that lived long before dinosaurs even existed. Source

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

A more entertaining source:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/101/

[–] dohpaz42 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

We need to induct Randal into the wholesome four at some point.

Edit: typo

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Induct? Or has he committed a crime I'm not aware of?

[–] dohpaz42 5 points 4 months ago

The crime of being wholesome and helping other people!!

Ok, autocorrect hates me. Thanks for pointing that out.

[–] essell 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I am under the impression that's coal.

Oil is from sea life. Though I did read that in the 80s so entirely possible its nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes and no. They're both hydrocarbons.

Coal is organic matter from dry land, so typically plants.

Oil is from organic matter that fell to the ocean floor, so microbial life, algae and the like.

But both are from and end up as the same types of organic molecules. Carbon and hydrogen.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Wow ok that's cool.. so then every* oil well is in a place that historically was underwater?

[–] Cornelius_Wangenheim 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes, specifically shallow seas that are so rich that they go anoxic. Without oxygen, the organisms don't break down and just accumulate.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Can Texas just go back to being a shallow anoxic sea?

Please?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes. A lot of such places are still below the seabed, hence off-shore oil-rigs.

[–] grandkaiser 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Nah, coal is plant matter too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Trees from before anything existed that could break down wood

[–] essell 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah, that's what I said!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I guess algae and bacteria are close to plants.

[–] essell 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

How close? Like cousins or Alabama cousins?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Louisiana cousins I believe.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Not really, especially in this science sub

[–] Akareth 10 points 4 months ago

And non-plants like algae and bacteria.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Dinosaurs -> chickens

Chickens -> pulverized chicken paste

Pulverized chicken paste -> dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets

[–] roguetrick 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Dinosaurs = Chickens

Therefore dinosaur shaped dinosaur nuggets

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

@roguetrick @TheSlad I occasionally talk to groups kids or sometimes adults about dinosaurs. A lot of them are still surprised to learn that all birds actually are dinosaurs (descendants from the only lineage(s) that managed to survive the K-Pg extinction event).
Surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly) people’re often resistant to the idea that birds are dinosaurs, i.e. that not all dinosaurs died out. The fact that many were feathered is helping shift the paradigm

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't think we have the technology yey to create dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. The ones I have seen usually are shaped like nondescript blobs.

[–] Aux 2 points 4 months ago

It is possible, but it's wasteful and expensive.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Actually, it's mostly plancton.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Let's make microplancton plastic toys.

Wait. What about microplastics in the oceans ?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They will become new oil in a million years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They won't. There are bacteria that eat plastic. There is no path* to creating oil or coal again, biology is too good at breaking hydrocarbon precursors

*Except by deliberate human industry

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Since we are all full of microplastics, does that mean we are part dinosaur?

[–] ODuffer 11 points 4 months ago

We are full of stars

[–] ProfessorProteus 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

I'd say no, because the microplastics aren't really a part of our DNA. But that's just my definition.

I think we could say that we all have dinosaurs inside us, just like our pesky skeletons.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

But aren't like 50% of cells in your body bacteria? I'd say those are considered part of you. But I get what you are saying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Does it need to be part of your DNA?

If I weigh 99 Kg, and I eat 1 Kg of ravioli, I am 1% ravioli.

[–] ProfessorProteus 2 points 4 months ago

Like I said, it's just the way I feel about it. Yours is a compelling argument though, and honestly more fun!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Plastic is almost entirely made from plants much older then dinosaurs, but if you ate a chicken on the other hand...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Does mechanically separated chicken count?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

dinosaur necromancy

[–] HootinNHollerin 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The circle of life is really about the CO~2~ we make along the way

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

This meme never gets old

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought this was a guide to the game "Workers and Resources: Society Republic"

I must be playing it too much...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I just picked that up in the summer sale! Looking forward to playing it.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Following the flow chart I came to the conclusion that plastic dinosaurs are real dinosaurs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

And yet, a sense of the true self exists in the false self.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Life is short, but an idea is forever.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

restoration

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Stage Three: The sign marks the absence of basic reality. The image calls into question what the reality is and if it even exists.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes, triceratops and T-Rex.

Why not the iPad? It’s as far time wise to the Rex as the Rex is to the tops.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Are you confusing Triceratops with Stegosaurus? Triceratops and T. Rex both lived in the late Cretaceous.