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
Ackchually, oil is mostly from plant matter.
TIL
A more entertaining source:
https://what-if.xkcd.com/101/
We need to induct Randal into the wholesome four at some point.
Edit: typo
Induct? Or has he committed a crime I’m not aware of?
The crime of being wholesome and helping other people!!
Ok, autocorrect hates me. Thanks for pointing that out.
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.
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.
Wow ok that’s cool… so then every* oil well is in a place that historically was underwater?
Yes, specifically shallow seas that are so rich that they go anoxic. Without oxygen, the organisms don’t break down and just accumulate.
Can Texas just go back to being a shallow anoxic sea?
Please?
Yes. A lot of such places are still below the seabed, hence off-shore oil-rigs.
Nah, coal is plant matter too.
Trees from before anything existed that could break down wood
Yeah, that’s what I said!
I guess algae and bacteria are close to plants.
How close? Like cousins or Alabama cousins?
Louisiana cousins I believe.
Not really, especially in this science sub
And non-plants like algae and bacteria.