Researchers now have an estimate for just how many T. rex once roamed Earth

[UngulateNerd92]

Billions of Tyrannosaurus rex roamed North America during their fascinating reign as top predators, according to a team of researchers that went about the daunting task of making the calculation.

Paleontologists from the University of California, Berkeley, set out to put a number on how many T. rex lived during the Cretaceous period -- about 65 million to 98 million years ago -- knowing that it wouldn't be a simple task.

How many T. rex were there? Billions, it turns out - CNN

 

[Chlidonias]

"There is just no information to make the estimate" says one of the study team ... then proceeds to estimate 2.5 billion.

 

[UngulateNerd92]

"There is just no information to make the estimate" says one of the study team ... then proceeds to estimate 2.5 billion.

Yeah, the methodology does seem questionable then...

 

[Great Argus]

Even if a lot of their estimated number isn't adults, that's still an insanely high number for a giant carnivore living on one continent.

 

[Fallax]

Even if a lot of their estimated number isn't adults, that's still an insanely high number for a giant carnivore living on one continent.

Not sure if you noticed but it said 2.5 billion ever lived, not at one time!

 

[Great Argus]

Not sure if you noticed but it said 2.5 billion ever lived, not at one time!

Whoops, missed that somehow. That seems to align better, though as Chlidonias points out the study seems questionable.

 

[Chlidonias]

Whoops, missed that somehow. That seems to align better, though as Chlidonias points out the study seems questionable.

Yes, they are saying that there were 20,000 at any one time, multiplied over 2.5 million years (which doesn't equal 2.5 billion, so presumably adjusted for generation times which they say was 19 years).

 

[toothlessjaws]

But from what point was a t-rex a t-rex?

 

[UngulateNerd92]

Here is what Ben G. Thomas had to say about this on his YouTube channel, and again, he says that the study had a sizeable margin of error.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

You have to have pretty good info on other dinosaur species and their relative abundance. It is a long leap from saying 20,000 at any one time and not know what Numbers Triceratops te cetera existed.

 

[UngulateNerd92]

You have to have pretty good info on other dinosaur species and their relative abundance. It is a long leap from saying 20,000 at any one time and not know what Numbers Triceratops te cetera existed.

Good point you bring up there!