They often write that the decomposition products of the ancient inhabitants of our planet—dinosaurs—played a crucial role in the formation of “black gold.” We checked if this is true.

You can read about this interesting fact on the economic portal “Who knows", in the training course for primary grades "Fish, fossils and fuels"from the Society of Petroleum Engineers, in the story by Victor Pelevin"Macedonian criticism of French thought"and many other sources. A similar opinion is widespread in the West, where it is mentioned in educational blogs. Both Russian and foreign sources provide evidence that this information has been taught in secondary schools for a long time.

Also distributed on the Internet meme “If dinosaurs turned into organic remains, which then became oil, and oil is used to make plastic, does that mean that plastic dinosaurs are made from real ones?”

Scientists still have not come to a consensus on how oil was formed. There are two fundamentally different theories of its origin. According to the first - organic, or biogenic, - the basis for oil was the remains of ancient organisms and plants that over millions of years were deposited on the bottom of the seas or covered in layers on the continent. Then, after processing by microorganisms and under the influence of temperature and pressure, they formed source rocks rich in organic matter (capable of producing oil).

These rocks can become the basis for oil in the so-called oil window — zone at a depth of 1.6–4.6 km with temperatures from 60 to 150 °C. In its upper part, the temperature is not high enough, and the oil turns out to be “heavy”: viscous, thick, with a high content of resins and asphaltenes. Below, the temperature of the layers rises so much that the molecules of organic matter are crushed into the simplest hydrocarbons - natural gas is formed. Then, under the influence of various forces, hydrocarbons migrate from the oil source formation to the overlying or underlying rocks.

This short description may give a false impression of the rapidity of the process of oil formation from organic remains. In fact, according to scientists, it takes on average from 10 to 60 million years. Another thing is artificial conditions: if an appropriate temperature regime is created for an organic substance, then an hour is enough for it to transition into a soluble state with the formation of all the main classes of hydrocarbons. Proponents of the organic hypothesis interpret such experiments in their favor: the transformation of organic matter into oil is obvious.

There are other arguments in favor of the biogenic origin of oil. Thus, most industrial oil accumulations are adjacent to sedimentary rocks. Moreover, living matter and oil are similar in elemental and isotopic composition. In particular, biomarkers are found in most oil fields, such as chlorophyll pigments, which are widespread in wildlife. Even more convincing is the coincidence of the carbon isotope composition in biomarkers and other oil hydrocarbons. All this makes the organic theory of the origin of things much more popular in modern science.

However, supporters inorganic theory give a number of arguments in favor of their point of view. There are many versions of the inorganic origin of oil in the depths of the earth and other cosmic bodies, but they are all based on the same facts. First, many (though not all) deposits are associated with fault zones. Through these faults, according to supporters of the inorganic concept, oil rises from great depths closer to the surface of the Earth. Secondly, oil deposits are found not only in sedimentary, but also in igneous and metamorphic rocks (although they could end up there as a result of migration). In addition, hydrocarbons are found in matter erupted from volcanoes. Finally, the third, most compelling argument in favor of the inorganic theory is that hydrocarbons exist not only on Earth, but also in meteorites, comet tails, the atmospheres of other planets and dispersed cosmic matter. Thus, the presence of methane was noted on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. On Titan, Saturn's moon, there are rivers and lakes made of a mixture of methane, ethane, propane, ethylene and acetylene. And since it is believed that there is currently no life outside the Earth, supporters of the inorganic theory prove that hydrocarbons can do without organics.

Obviously, the feasible contribution of dinosaurs to the formation of oil can only be considered within the framework of the first theory - organic. However, there are two serious arguments against this.

1. According to the prevailing concept today, oil existed for the lion's share of the existence of our planet (4 billion years). In addition to technical calculations, numerous findings speak in favor of this. For example, in 1998 in Australia, tiny drops of oil were discovered inside rocks, the age of final formation of which reaches 3.8 billion years. At the same time, dinosaurs (except the so-called avian dinosaurs) existed from about 250 million years ago to 66 million years ago. In other words, if the entire history of the existence of oil is divided into 16 equal segments, then dinosaurs will fall into the last, 16th. Without them, oil was formed quite successfully, although a considerable part of the existing oil reserves and appeared in the last segment.

2. Animals do not constitute and 1% of the total biomass of the Earth. This is the situation now, and this is how it was, according to experts, millions of years ago. According to scientists, the source material for the formation of oil was and continues to be the microorganisms that inhabit coastal sea waters - plankton, 90% of which is phytoplankton. In other words, oil is, first of all, the result of the decomposition of plants, and secondly (or even tenth) of animals, and then mostly small ones, but almost certainly marine ones.

Thus, official science does not allow us to talk about any more or less noticeable participation of dinosaurs in the formation of oil. At the same time, it is also impossible to refute the presence of even a microscopic role of these animals in the process.

Where did the general misconception “oil comes from dinosaurs” come from? Modern research They say that it could be the result of an extensive advertising campaign by the oil corporation Sinclair Oil, which began in the 1930s in the United States. The corporation sponsored archaeological excavations of dinosaurs, sent giant models these creatures to the World Exhibitions in Chicago and New York, not to mention all kinds of symbols and souvenirs.