Researchers unveiled the first calculation of the total Tyrannosaurus rex population during the estimated 2.4 million years that this fearsome species inhabited western North America during the twilight of the age of dinosaurs reut.rs/3gjcAJs 1/5
Their analysis put the total number of T. rex individuals that ever existed at about 2.5 billion, including approximately 20,000 adults alive at any one time 2/5
They considered factors including the size of its geographic range, its body mass, growth pattern, age at sexual maturity, life expectancy, duration of a single generation and the total time that Tyrannosaurus rex existed before extinction 66 million years ago 3/5
They also heeded a doctrine called Damuth's law linking population to body mass: the bigger the animal, the fewer the individuals 4/5
Fossils of more than 40 T. rex individuals have been found since it was first described in 1905, providing a wealth of information about a beast that thrives in the popular imagination.
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