# Billions of Huge Dinosaurs! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 17, 2021, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200 "2021-04-17T09:34:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/1 "2021-04-17T09:34:19Z")
Like 2.5B T. Rexes! Have walked the Earth. According to a new study. That’s a lot, but might explain some of the people at the gym I frequent. > **[Around 2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rex have walked the Earth, according to new...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-around-25-billion-tyrannosaurus-rex-have-walked-the-earth-according-to/)** > > Researchers unveiled the first calculation of the total T. rex population during the estimated 2.4 million years that the species roamed North America, estimating around 20,000 adults were alive at any given time ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/2 "2021-04-18T13:19:03Z")
They were around for 2.4 million years? I bet the later T.rex scientists considered those early ones to be a different species. “You can clearly see they have longer arms than us evolved terror lizards,” or something. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/3 "2021-04-18T13:29:39Z")
> [@](#): > > 20,000 adults were alive at any given time That doesn’t sound like so many. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/4 "2021-04-18T13:36:45Z")
Maybe not. But if dinosaurs were around for 2.5M years, and there were 2.5B of them, that’s _only_ 1000 T-Rex per year. Though these numbers are likely wrong, I’m not sure how comforting a 20:1 ratio of people to T-Rexes would be. Good thing they were mostly in Alberta. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/5 "2021-04-18T14:13:28Z")
Another version of this article: > **[‘That’s a lot of teeth’: 2.5 billion T rex walked the earth, researchers find](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/15/tyrannosaurus-rex-total-population)** > > Experts calculate the total number of the dinosaurs that lived over 127,000 generations says that “the total population could be as little as 140 million or as much as 42 billion with 2.4 billion as the middle value”. That is some range there. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/6 "2021-04-18T14:24:07Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > But if dinosaurs were around for 2.5M years, and there were 2.5B of them, that’s _only_ 1000 T-Rex per year. 1000 _new_ T-Rex a year. They’re probably assuming a 20 year lifespan. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/7 "2021-04-18T15:16:59Z")
That makes the ratio 1:1 assuming the human population was static, because of dinosaurs and such. There is a comedy routine about Jesus commenting on the dangers of dinosaurs, but I can’t remember who does it. I thought it was funny. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/8 "2021-04-18T15:48:24Z")
127000 generations of T-rexes and only about 7500 generations of modern humans so far… Guess we should stop making fun of their ability to do push ups. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/9 "2021-04-18T15:50:30Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > 20,000 adults were alive at any given time > > That doesn’t sound like so many. Well, there were between 140 million and 42 billion of them. So, yeah, not an especially firm number. > **[2.5 Billion T. Rex May Have Roamed Earth](https://gizmodo.com/2-5-billion-t-rex-may-have-roamed-earth-1846691923)** > > In total, some 2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rex may have reached maturity and marauded the Cretaceous landscape, according to a new study. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/10 "2021-04-18T19:32:15Z")
If there were that many apex predators, try to imagine how many of the prey dinosaurs there must have been… ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billions-of-huge-dinosaurs/940200/11 "2021-04-18T20:34:36Z")
On the fourth day of a Christmas, my true love gave to me: Thirty billion Raptors, Twelve billion Brontosaurus, Three billion T-Rex and a beer…