The Sinclair Oil Company performed a huge public disservice by adopting a dinosaur as its emblem. It gave unschooled oafs the impression that dinosaur remains are a major constituent of petroleum. They are not. If it were possible to source the individual atoms in a tank of gasoline, those derived from plants would outnumber those from animals by a huge margin. But a giant tree fern would not have made as impressive a logo as a Brontosaurus, would it? And most of the dinosaur-derived atoms would have come from the poop of dinosaur carnivores and scavengers, not from the direct decay of actual animals. But a dinosaur turd wouldn't have made much of a logo either, would it? Bee-dubya-ell Imperial Ignoramus His Mark <ยก!>
|