Almost 2 Billion T. Rexes Once Stomped the Earth

A 2023 paper revises (and takes issue with) the previous and much-repeated estimate of 2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rexes that roamed our planet.

By Matt Hrodey
Jun 1, 2023 1:00 PMFeb 13, 2024 5:13 PM
T. Rex
(Credit: Petr Bonek/Shutterstock)

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Some 1.7 billion Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs once roamed the earth, according to a new paper. But that wasn’t all at once – the paper’s model estimates that only 19,200 were alive at any one time, a more fitting number considering their role as top predators.

The study follows research from 2021 that pegged the total number of T. rex dinosaurs at 2.5 billion. But the new paper’s author, Eva Griebeler – an evolutionary ecologist at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz – revised key portions of the 2021 study’s underlying model.

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