It all started with a simple question: "Do snakes fart?"
Dani Rabaiotti had no idea. But the zoologist and University College London PhD student knew she could probably tap her scientist friends on Twitter and find an answer to her brother's simple query. So she asked snake expert David Steen what he thought.
But the smelly questions didn't end there. What about fish? Cheetahs? And dinosaurs?
Soon, the hashtag #doesitfart? was born.
Now Rabaiotti, along with another animal expert, Nick Caruso from Virginia Tech, have compiled their answers into a book that answers the question"does it fart?" for more than 80 different animals, including humans and dinosaurs.
"The farts basically brought us together," Caruso said.
Here are a few of our favorite flatulence questions, as answered by the new book:
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Seals and sea lions may be some of the smelliest gas emitters out there.
"Having been near seals and sea lions on field work before, I can confirm they are absolutely vile," Rabaiotti told Business Insider.
Bolson Pupfish have to fart, because if they don't they'll explode. Or they might float to the surface of their ponds and get eaten by a predator. Not ideal.
The Bolson pupfish (Cyprinodon atrorus) is a species of fish that lives in the pools of this northern Mexican reserve. If they don't fart regularly, the gas that builds up in their system can make them burst.
The authors said that around 300 of these little fish have been found dead from not farting. "It really is a case of fart or die," they wrote.
That's not true for all fish, though.
Goldfish don't usually fart, even though they do have some gas-making bacteria in their guts.
"It is far more common to see them burp out gas than pass it through their anal duct," the authors said, warning that if your goldfish is farting, it's probably having some serious digestive issues.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider