Oil (and other carbon based fuels like Coal, but for this question, I'm more interested in Oil) is widely regarded as a "Fossil Fuel" because its origin was ancient flora and fauna, buried deep below the surface for millions of years while being transformed into oil.
Is this really the case?
Was there enough ancient plant and animal life trapped beneath the surface to account for known oil reserves?
People often say they are "filling their tank with dinosaurs" -- how much oil actually comes from dinosaurs or other animals versus other sources? A commenter asked for references for this claim, I thought the dinosaur gas tank connection was well known, here are a few references to dinosaurs in the gas tank:
- Chevron Dinosaur ad
- Just a Few Dinosaurs Short of a Full Tank
- Dinosaur Fossil Fuels T-shirt
- What's a dinosaur doing in my gas tank?
- Put another dinosaur in the gas tank
How did this ancient life come to be buried thousands of feet below the current surface of the earth and oceans? Continental drift and other plate tectonics shifting?
Was this transformation process 100% complete? Are there any cases where ancient plant matter, fossils, etc were pumped to the surface from an oil well?