How Many Dinosaurs Are There Left To Discover?

fossilology is presently see something of a “ prosperous age ” , with a riches of new , weird , andwonderfuldinosaurs discovered each twelvemonth . The doubt is just how long that gilded age will last . Only a finite issue of dinosaur species existed – so how many are there left to find ?

There ’s no precise response to that doubtfulness at the moment because , well , we do n’t have intercourse what we do n’t know , and it ’s not strange to learn a palaeontologist say that the fossil phonograph recording is far from arrant . That being said , scientist are still making approximation , which often start with predictions of how many dinosaur species exist .

“ We ’ve only found a tiny fraction of the dinosaur that have ever lived , ” Steve Brusatte , a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh , toldCNN . “ Birdstoday are the descendent of dinosaurs . There ( are ) over 10,000 specie of birds that populate just flop now . And of row , dinosaurs live for well over 150 million days . So do the math . There were belike thousands , if not zillion , of different species of dinosaur . ”

But what do other scientist say ?

In 2006 , palaeontologists Steve C. Wang and Peter Dodson used a statistical methodto estimatethe act of non - avian dinosaur genus – the scientific rank above species – to ever have exist , and immobilize it down to around 1,850 . At the time , there were 527 genus that had been discovered , so they predicted that around 71 percent were left to be discovered .

Many genera of presently known dinosaur contain just a single species , known as monospecificity , so it would be wanton to assume that this could translate to the number of species left to obtain . However , it ’s not unfeigned of 10 per centum , so there ’s the potential for there to be far more species .

Nonetheless , a 2016studydid estimate the number of species was n’t too far off . The try modeling used lead the authors to the conclusion that there were around 1,936 different mintage of dinosaur to have survive . Given that there are around 1,000 discover species of dinosaur , that leave us with just over 900 leave to find – if wecanfind them .

Not everything make it into the fossil record . Fossilization requires specific condition , bank on an being to not decompose or get snaffle up and digested . Without a multi - stop journeying on a metre automobile , we ca n’t have sex what did or did n’t make it intofossilhood .

However , out of the dinosaur genera that are “ discoverable ” ( in other give-and-take , were successfully fossilized , the fossil did n’t get destroyed at some point , and they ’re in a position where people are capable of finding them ) , Wang and Dodson predicted that 75 per centum of them will be known within the next 60 to 100 years . After around 100 to 140 year , their model suggests we ’ll love 90 percent .

Whether or not those anticipation come unfeigned , it ’s likely that the gold age of fossilology is n’t going away any metre soon , nor is the unwavering stream ofnew dinosaur speciesit ’s providing .