• Question: What is the most dominant species? I.e between viruses, fungi, animals etc....

    Asked by jarsden to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Stephen Curry

      Stephen Curry answered on 13 Jun 2010:

      That’s a really interesting question. I think it depends what you mean by dominant. I terms of sheer numbers (or total ‘biomass’ – the weight of all the organisms in a particular species), I think the bacteria may be the winners.

      Did you know that about 90% of the cells in your body are bacteria!!!! (The reason they are not 90% of your body mass is that they are much smaller that your body cells). See here if you don’t believe me:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_microbiome_project

      But there are also lots of species of insects, especially beetles I think.

      Of course, one argument is that humans are the most dominant species. In terms of the environment we are probably having the most impact on the planet – at the moment.

      But if a large meteorite hits the earth, OR one of these super-volcanoes erupts (not that piddling one in Iceland that caused so much disruption last month) OR there is another ice age (which is inevitable), that could wipe out all humans. My guess is that such events would probably leave the insects in charge.

      So be nice to them!

    • Photo: Tom Hartley

      Tom Hartley answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      This depends on what you mean by dominant. For example, it might mean which species has the most individuals alive right now, or it might mean which species colonizes the widest range of environments. Or which species has survived longest in essentially the same form. Or it might mean (Harry Hill style) who would win in a fight.

      Some of the bacteria and other single-celled organisms would rate pretty highly in all these charts, but it’s not my area so I couldn’t be more specific; insects such as beetles and ants would also be contenders. Although I think we tend to overestimate our importance in most things, humans would be right up there too since we have a large number of individuals alive (particularly when you consider our size, or total biomass) and we have developed these crackpot weapons which will allow us to wipe out most of the other large organisms and ourselves if we are crazy enough to do so. But I think their are plenty of bacterial species that could survive the worst we could throw at them and still “have” us in a fight, so they would win in Harry Hill terms.

    • Photo: Steve Roser

      Steve Roser answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Well there is only one species that has the power to totally mess up the world, and all the evidence seems to suggest that after we’ve done that, it’ll be the cockroaches which rule. I’m going off to get myself a nice shiny black carapace now, and move in under teh fridge…..

    • Photo: Marieke Navin

      Marieke Navin answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      I heard that only cockroaches could survive a nuclear holocaust so it’s got to be them!

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