Scientists have revised the total count of Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs that once roamed the Earth, revealing that approximately 1.7 billion of these dinosaur rulers existed over the course of our planet’s history.
In April 2021, a study published in the journal Science initially estimated the number to be as high as 2.5 billion T. rex individuals during the period between 68 and 65.5 million years ago. However, a recent study, published on April 18 of the current year in the journal Palaeontology, challenges this figure, proposing that the actual count is likely closer to 1.7 billion.
Eva Griebeler, the author of the new study and an evolutionary ecologist at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany, explained that her revised model incorporated information about T. rex that was overlooked by the original study’s authors, leading to the adjusted estimate.
Charles Marshall, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the lead author of the 2021 study, acknowledged that the new model offers a more comprehensive analysis, improving upon the original team’s work.
