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It's a question most palaeontologists don't want to try and answer, because it's so easy to be wrong, by a huge number. Many dinosaur species are known from a single, incomplete specimen. But was that specimen from a population of ten thousand, or ten million? We just don't know. Some environments are really bad at producing fossils, so there could have been animals wandering round in their millions without leaving a trace. Also remember that the "dino era" lasted for 165 million years, and during that time there were incredible differences in the earth's climate. Depending on where you were, you might find it difficult to survive on that basis alone. We're talking ocean temperatures reaching up to 35°C, or about the same as a hot tub. Or oxygen levels at sea level that would be like climbing in the Himalayas today. Don't rely on plant life to help with your survival, as plants evolved just the same as life on land, and fruit and berries simply didn't exist for most of the time of the dinosaurs. Those that did were almost certainly inedible. However, you could always try eating a dinosaur, as their descendants are certainly tasty. Cook it thoroughly though - you don't want to meet too many parasites or microbes that the human immune system has never encountered. To answer the question directly, there was a study that suggested there could have been 20,000 T-Rexes alive in the Northern US at one time. That's roughly the same as the number of wild lions in Africa, or Grizzly Bears in Canada. Maybe the most important thing to remember is that dinosaurs were really just animals, and would likely have reacted to you in the same way as modern animals. Predators would likely leave you alone if they weren't hungry. Herbivores wouldn't care at all if they didn't see you as a threat. You might get chased away if you pose a threat to their offspring, food or territory, but hunting you down after that would just be wasted calories. Answer from Antonio_Malochio on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/paleontology › how many dinosaurs were there?
r/Paleontology on Reddit: How many dinosaurs were there?
April 4, 2022 -

I have asked a similar question regarding life in the oceans, I don't know why i find these hypothetical topics so interesting... But anyway:

If you were to be put at a random location on the planet (on the surface, not in water) at a random time during the dino-era. What would be the chances of stumbling upon something considered to be a dinosaur? Or would a dino stumble upon you? How much in danger would you be?

And a bonus question for you lucky girls and guys: What would life in the dino-era be like? Are there any videos or literature trying to describe what it would be like to 'actually' walk with dinosaurs? What's the smell like? Noise? Vegetation? Would a normal guy like me, 9-5 in an office-workin' fella be able to gather and prepare edible food if i had a lighter and unlimited fuel?

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It's a question most palaeontologists don't want to try and answer, because it's so easy to be wrong, by a huge number. Many dinosaur species are known from a single, incomplete specimen. But was that specimen from a population of ten thousand, or ten million? We just don't know. Some environments are really bad at producing fossils, so there could have been animals wandering round in their millions without leaving a trace. Also remember that the "dino era" lasted for 165 million years, and during that time there were incredible differences in the earth's climate. Depending on where you were, you might find it difficult to survive on that basis alone. We're talking ocean temperatures reaching up to 35°C, or about the same as a hot tub. Or oxygen levels at sea level that would be like climbing in the Himalayas today. Don't rely on plant life to help with your survival, as plants evolved just the same as life on land, and fruit and berries simply didn't exist for most of the time of the dinosaurs. Those that did were almost certainly inedible. However, you could always try eating a dinosaur, as their descendants are certainly tasty. Cook it thoroughly though - you don't want to meet too many parasites or microbes that the human immune system has never encountered. To answer the question directly, there was a study that suggested there could have been 20,000 T-Rexes alive in the Northern US at one time. That's roughly the same as the number of wild lions in Africa, or Grizzly Bears in Canada. Maybe the most important thing to remember is that dinosaurs were really just animals, and would likely have reacted to you in the same way as modern animals. Predators would likely leave you alone if they weren't hungry. Herbivores wouldn't care at all if they didn't see you as a threat. You might get chased away if you pose a threat to their offspring, food or territory, but hunting you down after that would just be wasted calories.
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Given the ammount of dinosaurs we consume today as staple foods, i doubt you'd have trouble feeding yourself with access to fire. Just sayin.
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Dinosaur World Live
dinosaurworldlive.com › blog › how-many-dinosaurs-lived-on-earth
How many dinosaurs lived on earth?
It’s estimated that around 900 different valid species existed throughout the dinosaur age, which spanned 235 million - 65 million years ago. Valid means scientists have found enough bones to be relatively certain each individual species is different enough to have its own classification.
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American Museum of Natural History
amnh.org › dinosaurs › types-of-dinosaurs
Types of Dinosaurs | American Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs are prehistoric reptiles that have lived on Earth from about 245 million years ago to the present. Modern birds are one kind of dinosaur because they share a common ancestor with non-avian dinosaurs. Non-avian dinosaurs (all dinosaurs besides birds), which are now extinct, varied greatly in shape and size.
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Discover Wildlife
discoverwildlife.com › dinosaurs › how-many-species-of-dinosaurs-were-there
How many species of dinosaurs were there? | Discover Wildlife
April 3, 2025 - The Triassic (252-201 million years ago) marked the emergence of the first dinosaurs (tentatively thought to be the Nyasasaurus according to the Natural History Museum), while the Jurassic (201-145 million years ago) saw the rise of large, herbivorous dinosaurs and the first birds.
It's a question most palaeontologists don't want to try and answer, because it's so easy to be wrong, by a huge number. Many dinosaur species are known from a single, incomplete specimen. But was that specimen from a population of ten thousand, or ten million? We just don't know. Some environments are really bad at producing fossils, so there could have been animals wandering round in their millions without leaving a trace. Also remember that the "dino era" lasted for 165 million years, and during that time there were incredible differences in the earth's climate. Depending on where you were, you might find it difficult to survive on that basis alone. We're talking ocean temperatures reaching up to 35°C, or about the same as a hot tub. Or oxygen levels at sea level that would be like climbing in the Himalayas today. Don't rely on plant life to help with your survival, as plants evolved just the same as life on land, and fruit and berries simply didn't exist for most of the time of the dinosaurs. Those that did were almost certainly inedible. However, you could always try eating a dinosaur, as their descendants are certainly tasty. Cook it thoroughly though - you don't want to meet too many parasites or microbes that the human immune system has never encountered. To answer the question directly, there was a study that suggested there could have been 20,000 T-Rexes alive in the Northern US at one time. That's roughly the same as the number of wild lions in Africa, or Grizzly Bears in Canada. Maybe the most important thing to remember is that dinosaurs were really just animals, and would likely have reacted to you in the same way as modern animals. Predators would likely leave you alone if they weren't hungry. Herbivores wouldn't care at all if they didn't see you as a threat. You might get chased away if you pose a threat to their offspring, food or territory, but hunting you down after that would just be wasted calories. Answer from Antonio_Malochio on reddit.com
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USGS
pubs.usgs.gov › gip › dinosaurs › types.html
How Many Types of Dinosaurs Are Known?
Even if all of the roughly 700 published species are valid, their number is still less than one-tenth the number of currently known living bird species, less than one-fifth the number of currently known mammal species, and less than one-third the number of currently known spider species.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Dinosaur
Dinosaur - Wikipedia
1 week ago - There were three general dinosaur faunas in the Late Cretaceous. In the northern continents of North America and Asia, the major theropods were tyrannosaurids and various types of smaller maniraptoran theropods, with a predominantly ornithischian herbivore assemblage of hadrosaurids, ceratopsians, ankylosaurids, and pachycephalosaurians.
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Plos
theplosblog.plos.org › home › how many dinosaurs were there?
How many dinosaurs were there? - The Official PLOS Blog
November 25, 2024 - This disparity is even more extreme when you consider that while non-avian dinosaurs were around for about 170 million years, there were only ever about 800 or so species of dinosaur, based on current records.
Find elsewhere
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PubMed
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › 2217192
Counting dinosaurs: how many kinds were there? - PubMed
Dinosaurs figure prominently in ... our understanding of dinosaur diversity. A critical evaluation shows that of 540 genera and 800 species of dinosaurs proposed since 1824, 285 genera and 336 species are probably ...
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IFLScience
iflscience.com › how-many-dinosaurs-are-there-left-to-discover-74267
How Many Dinosaurs Are There Left To Discover? | IFLScience
May 17, 2024 - The sampling model used led the authors to the conclusion that there were around 1,936 different species of dinosaurs to have existed. Given that there are around 1,000 named species of dinosaur, that leaves us with just over 900 left to find ...
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Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
dinomuseum.ca › home › blogosaur › how many kinds of dinosaurs were there?
How Many Kinds of Dinosaurs Were There? - Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum
June 11, 2024 - In the modern extant archosaurs, there’s 14 species in the genus Crocodylus, and genera of modern birds contain anywhere from one to several dozen species. Entomology blows this out of the water, with some insect genera containing over 100 species each. This has led some authors to suggest that dinosaurs are over-split, and that many similar genera should really be lumped together.
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American Museum of Natural History
amnh.org › dinosaurs › dinosaur-facts
Dinosaur Facts | American Museum of Natural History
In 1842, the English naturalist ... non-avian dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago. There are roughly 700 known species of extinct dinosaurs....
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The Conversation
theconversation.com › why-were-there-so-many-dinosaur-species-67887
Why were there so many dinosaur species?
April 3, 2025 - There might have been as many as 160,000 types of dinosaur, give or take.
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DINOSAUR EARTH
dinosaurearth.com › how-many-dinosaur-species.html
How Many Dinosaur Species - DINOSAUR EARTH
With nearly eight hundred species known, how many more could there possibly be? Surely with the number of dinosaur hunters and the number of scientists working on them it shouldn't take too long to find and describe all of the species.
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The Conversation
theconversation.com › curious-kids-how-many-dinosaurs-in-total-lived-on-earth-during-all-periods-100460
Curious Kids: How many dinosaurs in total lived on Earth during all periods?
September 29, 2025 - We know of about 900 valid dinosaur species that existed. ‘Valid’ means scientists know the dinosaur from enough of the skeleton bones to feel pretty sure that it differs from other known dinosaurs.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › List_of_dinosaur_genera
List of dinosaur genera - Wikipedia
1 week ago - The list contains 1809 names, of which approximately 1383 are considered either valid dinosaur genera or nomina dubia. There is no official, canonical list of all non-avian dinosaur genera.
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The Canadian Encyclopedia
thecanadianencyclopedia.ca › en › article › dinosaur
Dinosaurs and Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs, and are classified by modern biologists and palaeontologists as a subset of the Dinosauria. Therefore, there are more than 10,000 living species of dinosaurs.
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Smithsonian Magazine
smithsonianmag.com › science-nature › how-many-dinosaurs-remain-undiscovered-180982560
How Many Dinosaurs Remain Undiscovered?
July 20, 2023 - Fossil hunters are not just uncovering new dinosaur species—they’re revealing entirely new dinosaur groups that were unknown even ten years ago. “One of my go-to lines whenever I’m giving a public talk or writing a pop science article or book,” says University of Edinburgh paleontologist Stephen Brusatte, “is that we’re in the golden age of paleontology.” · While the 19th-century “Bone Wars” are widely known as when many dinosaurs were discovered and named, the early 21st century is seeing the greatest dinosaur bone rush of all time.
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PubMed Central
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › articles › PMC4810813
How many dinosaur species were there? Fossil bias and true richness estimated using a Poisson sampling model - PMC
Finally, the trough in raw richness in the Coniacian (89.8–86.3 Ma)–Santonian (86.3–83.6 Ma) with a peak in the two final stages of the Cretaceous for all clades seems to be a sampling artefact; while there is still a signal of reduced richness in the Coniacian for all dinosaurs, this is most likely driven by the ornithischians; the Coniacian–Santonian trough is not particularly strong for sauropodomorphs and theropods when inspecting the confidence intervals for these periods. Most simulated species do not span the whole interval in which they were sampled, unless speciation and extinction rates are both zero.
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PNAS
pnas.org › doi › 10.1073 › pnas.0606028103
Estimating the diversity of dinosaurs | PNAS
September 12, 2006 - Only rare genera are used to estimate diversity, a procedure that has several advantages for dinosaurs. First, it is often difficult to determine the exact number of individuals of very abundant genera. For example, in a large bonebed, we may be able to determine only that there are approximately several hundred individuals.