Comment on The circle of life

Slovene@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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  • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    A more entertaining source:

    what-if.xkcd.com/101/

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    • dohpaz42@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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      • gnutrino@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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• essell@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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      • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • grandkaiser@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Nah, coal is plant matter too.

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    • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Trees from before anything existed that could break down wood

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    • essell@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, that’s what I said!

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  • Piemanding@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I guess algae and bacteria are close to plants.

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    • xx3rawr@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Not really, especially in this science sub

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    • essell@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      How close? Like cousins or Alabama cousins?

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      • Piemanding@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Louisiana cousins I believe.

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• Akareth@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  And non-plants like algae and bacteria.

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