How Many T-Rex does it take to make a gallon of 92 Octane Gas?

**chows4us** · #1 (**permalink**) 12-03-2006, 11:52 PM

In case you haven't heard, Google is no longer doing Google answers. This is a famous question. You can read the answer here http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=6021

If your the impatient type and just want the executive summary .... the answer is ....

How many T-Rex does it take to make a gallon of 92 Octane Gas?

"... the current understanding of the formation process
is that oil is derived primarily from non-animal sources--probably mostly plankton."

WTH? I thought everyone knew oil came from dinosours. Plankton??? However ... it can be made indirectly and the math comes out to ...

460 gallons of 92 octane from the average T-Rex.

Lets see at 25 mpg thats almost 12K miles ... Easily a year driving for the average person ...

racerboy · #2 (**permalink**) 12-06-2006, 02:11 AM

Yeah, they call it fossil fuel, but it has nothing to do with dinosaurs. In fact, T-Rex only just disappeared (65 million years ago). The organic material that serves as the 'base' for petroleum started decay in 100s of millions of years ago.

The blame goes to Sinclair Oil for popularizing the myth that oil comes from dead dinosaurs. In the 1960s, the Sinclair Oil commercials used a Brontosaurus (technically an Apatosaurus - there is/was no such thing as a Brontosaurus, it was a taxonomy mix-up) in their advertising campaign. They may still do the same today.

But since this a crocodilian site and you mentioned T-Rex, did you know that the modern-day Crocodile Monitor (biggest lizard in the world) is, with the exception of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the only reptile to have its top and bottom teeth scissor across each other. This drastically improves the animal’s ability to tear and remove flesh from its prey.