• Ephera@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Even in terms of pure mass, the dominant species is actually ants: Estimates for biomass show humans at 60 megatons and ants at 70 megatons.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

      https://bigthink.com/13-8/earth-biomass-distribution/