Submitted by karelkarelkarels t3_10p5op6 in todayilearned
Comments
QuergonJiz t1_j6jy1zu wrote
The collective biomass of protozoa, bacteria, fungi and plants outweighs the rest of life on Earth by a huge margin.
Edit: Also interesting to note that when biomass is used as a measure of species success, cows are almost twice as successful as humans. Of course, the cow population is dependent on its symbiotic relationship with humans. The biomass of Artic Krill exceeds that of all humans as well. Were only an especially successfully species when when looking at the total amount of energy extracted from our environment, which greatly exceeds the calories stored in our bodies and the energy conversion necessary to hold it there.
DankDuke t1_j6kmj4u wrote
That's a lot of the information I wonder about whenever a post like this pops up. Many thanks!
QuergonJiz t1_j6lpmsu wrote
Welcome. Made a mistake. I meant *antarctic krill.
snow_michael t1_j6ihb4q wrote
That's gone down
Used to be 22%
https://www.half-earthproject.org/newly-discovered-bat-species-named-for-e-o-wilson
jwktiger t1_j6kcm54 wrote
is that b/c some are going extint or b/c we're discovering new rodents/other mammals?
snow_michael t1_j6lbtec wrote
I have no idea
the-magnificunt t1_j6ju7sv wrote
jwktiger t1_j6kchay wrote
Well Rodenta (aka rodents) is the largest family of mammals and its give or take 40% of all known mammal species; but this includes things like beavers.
but you are comparing two values, number of spieces vs number of population.
Genius Homo has 1 species (or at least only one recognized) but has 8ish Billion members Homo Speians (aka Humans). Genius Panthera has 5 species (Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Jaguars, Snow Leopards) but total population less than 200k. Thus one measure (number of species) Panthera is 5x as numerous as Homo. However if you look at population Homo is 40,000-50,000x as numerous as Panthera.
There are a LOT of bat speicies and lot of rodenta speicies but most aren't that populous (at least compared to say humans).
There are a lot of species of beetles much more than the number of ants, however the most ant species are very big in population.
Thus if you were to look at Species the animal world is basically mostly arthropods. But if you look at population its mostly worms.
milkman1218 t1_j6kscga wrote
Bat guano was and still is I believe in woman's makeups. Check out bat guano grand canyon it was the largest guano cave ever I believe!
Hungry-Fruit t1_j6iitg5 wrote
Nematodes make up 4/5's of animals on earth (in number) Also beetles make up 25% of all animal species on earth. (They're also 40% of insect species)