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When I was a kid in the 1980s, the scientific shows and authors all agreed that petroleum was made of dinosaurs. Triceratops and Brontosaurus had died ?? MYA and got compressed into the oil we're drilling for today.

It was only about 3 years ago when I learned that petroleum comes from almost anything organic. So, ferns and trees and moss, in addition to Velociraptor and Triceratops, I guess?

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Perhaps the more accurate description would be that as a kid, you misunderstood descriptions that petroleum was from decayed organic material from long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Yeah, because I was told that it was mostly trilobites, around the same time (mid late 80s).

Metacarcinization https://m.xkcd.com/2418/

Yeah, that is what we get for reading headlines and pictures and magazines, rather than books and scholarly articles and paying attention in class.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED343791.pdf?utm_source=c...

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