# Life varieties and their biomass **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 28, 2011, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-varieties-and-their-biomass/590600 "2011-07-28T08:23:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2011, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-varieties-and-their-biomass/590600/1 "2011-07-28T08:23:51Z")
Another thread ranks some species by number of individuals but ranking by total biomass also may be interesting. (Focusing on number of individuals leads to the scary thought that each of us has 100 trillion bacteria aboard, a number so large(\*) it seems like a misprint :smack: ) [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_%28ecology%29) gives a start. The blue whale (_Balaenoptera musculus_) had total mass of over 700 million humans in pre-whaling days, so must have been near the top of mammal species, as ordered by biomass. I was not surprised to see _Bos primigenius_ (aka _Beef hamburgerus_) first among mammals today with _Homo sapiens_ 2nd. Antarctic krill (_Euphausia superba_) seems to be in first place among animals, but I guess ants or copepods would rank higher if one based the ranks on a higher taxonomic grade than species. The topic seems interesting; I almost posted in GQ (“Where I can learn more?”). The Wiki article links to a book _World atlas of biodiversity_ which I may add to my Christmas wish list! (\* - yet human-based bacteria are less than 0.1% of the “several octillion” total individuals on the planet, which number may be dominated by the marine cyanobacteria (_Prochlorococcus_) Factoids like these are of no possible use to me, but have intrigued me for decades. Is this OCD, or some form of autism?