Total Number of Tyrannosaurus rex: ~2.5 Billion Individuals

[piranha]

Marshall, C.R., Latorre, D.V., Wilson, C.J., Frank, T.M., Magoulick, K.M., Zimmt, J.B., Poust, A.W. 2021
Absolute Abundance and Preservation Rate of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Science, 372:284-287

 

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[Top Trilo]

That's a lot! However I feel it would be extremely difficult to put a number on the amount when very few have been found. Like guessing the amount of jellybeans in a jar when you can't see the jar

 

From nbcnews.com

"Given uncertainties in the creatures’ generation length, range and how long they roamed, the Berkeley team said the total population could be as little as 140 million or as much as 42 billion"

 

This is the largest range I have ever seen seeing as the top of the range is 300x that of the lower range. Which would be like dating the dinosaur extinction to 1.1 billion years ago to 3.7 million years ago. Its cool to see a number but I don't think it adds any scientific value

[Scylla]

12 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

That's a lot! However I feel it would be extremely difficult to put a number on the amount when very few have been found. Like guessing the amount of jellybeans in a jar when you can't see the jar

 

From nbcnews.com

"Given uncertainties in the creatures’ generation length, range and how long they roamed, the Berkeley team said the total population could be as little as 140 million or as much as 42 billion"

 

This is the largest range I have ever seen seeing as the top of the range is 300x that of the lower range. Which would be like dating the dinosaur extinction to 1.1 billion years ago to 3.7 million years ago. Its cool to see a number but I don't think it adds any scientific value

Ironically, the large uncertainty in the estimate does not come from the uncertainty of the fossil record. Most of it stems from the wide range of population number versus animal size in modern predators. That is two orders of magnitude. This article explains that.

https://scitechdaily.com/paleontologists-stunning-conclusion-2-5-billion-t-rexes-roamed-north-america-over-the-cretaceous-period/amp/

[Top Trilo]

Now I'd like them to estimate the amount of trilobites that ever lived . 

[Macrophyseter]

Granted the methodology remains intact in the future, I think this study might be a starting point for something b

[Scylla]

8 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

Now I'd like them to estimate the amount of trilobites that ever lived . 

The rules of alliteration demand 22 trillion trilobites

[DPS Ammonite]

A study led by a University of California Berkeley paleontology professor estimates that 140 million to 42 billion T. rex dinosaurs lived during their 2.5 million years of existence. Bones from less than 100 individuals have been found. 

 

I wonder what his back of the envelope calculation is for the number of Composita subtilita brachiopods that existed over the course of the several million years of existence. Quadrillions?

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/collections-database/brachiopods/composita-subtilita-r1939/

 

Marshal, Charles R. et al. 2021. Absolute abundance and preservation rate of Tyrannosaurus rex. Science vol. 372, issue 6639, pp. 284-287.

 

https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/04/15/how-many-t-rexes-were-there-billions/

 

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6539/284

 

 

[FranzBernhard]

I think, we generally underestimate the amount of living beings ever existed. We are simply unable to grasp the size of planet earth plus the deep time involved. The results of such calculations are always stunning.

I have run a contest about "macro fossil mass occurrences" some time ago. I even discovered a gross error in one of the papers (error by factor 1000):

 

Franz Bernhard

Edited May 6, 2021 by FranzBernhard