Even in terms of pure mass, the dominant species is actually ants:
Ants aren’t a species. Ants is a family of insects, containing over 20000 species. Just, in case anyone was wondering…
I knew typing out the word “species” in a science community would get me into trouble… 🫠
No trouble just education
For some that is troubling
Well, in this case, I was being facetious. I don’t actually perceive it as trouble…
I know that, I was not referring to you personally
The most important result is that plants are the overwhelming winner in the “who weighs the most” contest, coming in at 450 gigatons. Microbes (which include bacteria, archaea, and most protists) come in next at around 81 gigatons. Animals (which includes insects, by the way), barely matter, weighing in at a mere 2 gigatons. It’s also worth noting that these plants are mostly on land. That means that the continents beat the oceans in terms of biospheric mass.
So, you mean that if ants decide to invade us, we are essentially screwed.
Bring it on. The EDF deploys!
All y’all talking about ants…our livestock weighs more than us. Thats insane to me.
Ah, yeah, I’ve heard similar numbers before, so while it’s still always a bit of a surprise when I see another such number, I kind of expect to be surprised. 🙃
Another set of numbers from a presentation I watched earlier is that in 2023, Germany (with our ~80 million citizens) slaughtered:
- 47.9 million pigs, cows, sheep, goats and horses.
- 702.2 million chicken, turkeys and ducks.
I don’t know, how much of that is being exported, but it still feels like we’re eating our own weight in meat every year, which probably fits in with that biomass number.
As source, it lists our Federal Statistical Office, so that should be this data: https://www-genesis.destatis.de/genesis/online?language=en&sequenz=tabelleErgebnis&selectionname=41331-0001
He misunderstood the assignment. Dirt is inert. Soil is living. He sucks as much at talking dirty as I do.
That’s princess Leah
Dude should get his ears checked. Dirty, not dirt.
Dirty: of, or pertaining to dirt. 🤷🏼♂️
Well, I look quite the fool. Don’t I?
Yeah, but you seem nice.