Paleobiologists from the University of Oslo, Norway have found out what numbers are expressed in the existing number of dinosaur species. The figures obtained showed that the average number of species is estimated at 1936.
Information on the research conducted by scientists was posted in a scientific journal, as well as on the website. The scientists' work is based on the data on paleobiological discoveries and systematization of dinosaurs known to science, including: 3122 observations of Dinosauria and their subgroups, 1150 Ornithischia, 602 Sauropodomorpha and 1366 Theropoda. The figures obtained as a result of data processing allow us to consider the minimum number of dinosaur species that existed in the Mesozoic as 1543 species, and the maximum is 2468.
The exact number of remains found by paleontologists was divided according to the geological stages of the Mesozoic, and the results obtained are listed in the table. Based on the data obtained, the scientists developed their own statistical model, which they called TRiPS (True Richness estimated using a Poisson Sampling model). The name indicates the use of Poisson flux sampling in the calculations, which, according to the researchers, gives a greater degree of reliability to the approach, and the result, greater resistance to small changes in the data.
Dinosaurs were the main inhabitants of the Earth from the Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (225-65 million years ago). The exact number of species is not yet known to science, since it is difficult to classify the discovered fragments of remains belonging to different geological periods, because they may belong to the same species.
According to most experts, it was long time ago to remove a third of the species that represent animals at different age stages and revise the current classification, which will reduce the number of existing species to half of the total number already known.