FUN FACT 1: SCIADONIC ACID WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSUMED BY DINOSAURS!
- Titanosaurian sauropods were the largest herbivorous creatures to ever inhabit planet earth
- They lived 245-65 million years ago, during a time period pre-dating the occurrence of modern angiosperm plants
- They ate huge amounts of ferns, cycads, and conifers (gymnosperms)
- The conifer species can be identified from the fossil record, and were likely rich in sciadonic acid (since their modern equivalents are rich in sciadonic acid and there is no reason to assume the synthetic machinery to make sciadonic acid did not exist earlier)
- Thus, these giant herbivores enjoyed the benefits of sciadonic acid (anti-inflammatory, energy, membrane structure), until their unfortunate (fortunate for us) demise, facilitated or accelerated by the impact of the Chicxulub impact crater near Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
- Hunter and gatherers and pre-1900 man probably also consumed significant amounts of sciadonic acid by consuming conifer seeds and leaves, and by consuming wild mammals that ate such seeds and leaves