Almost 2.5 Billion Tyrannosaurus Rexes are said to have lived on Earth | NOW

Over a span of several million years, an estimated 2.5 billion tyrannosaurus rexes lived on Earth, according to a study in the scientific journal Thursday. Science.

“That’s a lot of jaws, teeth, and claws,” said lead researcher Charles Marshall, the director of the University of California Paleontology Museum. The tyrannosaurus rex is known for its gigantic size, with huge hind legs and small front legs.

Scientists have never before made a rough estimate of the population of the tyrannosaurus rex. According to the study, this estimate can still contain a margin of error; for example, it is uncertain how long one generation of a tyrannosaurus rex lived and where on earth they all lived.

The population estimates of the research team range from 140 million to 42 billion. In comparison, there were lives until now approximately 108 billion people on Earth.

Few fossils of the tyrannosaurus rex have been found

So while there may have been billions of Tyrannosaurus rexes, relatively few fossils have been found. Paleontologists have discovered about 100 specimens so far: in 32 cases the find was large enough to determine that it was an adult animal.

For the estimate, the scientists looked at the body size, age at which they could reproduce and the energy requirements of the tyrannosaurus rex. They then used a scientific rule of thumb that states that the larger the animal, the smaller the population should be.

This enabled them to estimate how many specimens must have lived over a period of 127,000 generations.

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