Until now, no one has been able to calculate the number of long-extinct animals.
The authors of the study stated that
However, with 95% probability, we can only saythat the real number of tyrannosaurs was from 1,300 to 328 thousand.Thus, the total number of individuals in North America could be from 140 million to 42 billion.
To make these calculations, the researchers used computer simulations based on data published by John Damuth of the University of California, Santa Barbara.In them, the author relates the body mass of any living creature to the population density.This was called Damut's Law.
Further, the authors calculated that the probable age of sexual maturity of Tyrannosaurus rex is 15.5 years; its maximum lifespan is approximately 20 years; The average body weight for an adult is about 5,200 kg.The authors also used data on how fast Tyrannosaurus rex is over the course of its life.
Based on these estimates, the researchers calculatedthat each generation of tyrannosaurs lived for about 19 years, and the average population density of North America was about one dinosaur for every 100 square kilometers. km. The total geographic range of Tyrannosaurus rex is about 2.3 million square meters. km, where they lived for about 2.5 million years. Further, the authors calculated the constant population size - 20 thousand. In total, this species lived about 127 thousand generations, which in total is about 2.5 billion individuals.
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