Wikipedia has an interesting summary of various species' contribution to terrestrial biomass (link<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)#Global_biomass>). The following species are each individually responsible for 30% of terrestrial biomass:
1. humans 2. cattle 3. sheep and goats 4. chickens 5. ants Yes, that *is* 5 species, each of which contributes 30%… —R On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 5:44 PM, Russell Standish <[email protected]>wrote: > On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 10:01:11AM -0600, Steve Smith wrote: > > > > FWIW, Daniel Dennett recently claimed that 10,000 years ago humans > > and their domesticated animals comprised less than 1% of the mass of > > animal (not including invertebrates or ocean dwellers) of the earth > > but today we, along with our livestock and pets comprise 98%... I > > can't even image what the relative mass of automobiles (or just > > their tires?) or buildings might be (or smartphones or LEGO blocks). > > > > > > I'm highly sceptical of that claim. In the soils below our house, live > city-sized populations of ant, earthworms, and probably even more > nematodes. These all count as animal. And I live in one of the most > densely (human) populated parts of Australia (and the world, for that > matter, if you think of the vaste expanses of desert, savannah, > farmland etc). > > Schultz (PNAS, vol 97, 14028--14029), for example, estimates that ants > alone monopolise 15-25% of terrestrial biomass, far more than the > vertebrates. > > Cheers > > > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
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