Difference between revisions of "1338: Land Mammals"
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====Humans==== | ====Humans==== | ||
Cattle, in aggregate, are much heavier than the human population. | Cattle, in aggregate, are much heavier than the human population. | ||
| − | Humans outweigh both sheep and put | + | Humans outweigh both sheep and pigs put together. This is surprising as these animals outweigh the population in the countries that produce the majority of meat from such animals. |
====Our pets and livestock==== | ====Our pets and livestock==== | ||
Revision as of 11:42, 13 July 2015
| Land Mammals |
 Title text: Bacteria still outweigh us thousands to one--and that's not even counting the several pounds of them in your body. |
Explanation
This comic may be a nerd snipe from Randall, challenging his readers to figure out the missing parts.
The comic shows the total weight of mankind and all other land mammals. Only a few centuries ago, humans, their pets and livestock came to make up a great proportion of the earth's land mammal biomass. Note that only land-dwelling mammals are taken into account, so whales and other marine mammals are not included.
The design of the blocks loosely resembles a cell. This could be a reference to how these animals support humans, analogous to a cell supporting a central nucleus. If so, it seems that all the animals in this diagram, wild or domestic, in some way support human activity.
The title text states that bacteria outweigh us thousands to one, without counting the several pounds of bacteria in our body that are considered part of our own weight. The aforementioned cell could also be a bacterium, making it a possible reference to the title text. Slightly more than a thousand blocks have been used to sketch the "cell", and bacteria outweigh us by this factor.
Randall also discusses animal biomass in Fairy Demographics in which he compares the biomass of "fairies" to humans, horses, and humpback whales.
Weight
According to the diagram, there are 358 million tons of humans, 864 million tons of pets and livestock, of which 520 million tons comes from cattle, and 34 million tons of wild animals; for a total of 1.3 billion tons. The number of blocks represents the weight of the group in millions of tons = billions of kg. Note that some entries have the same number of blocks, and thus have the same rank.
Humans
Cattle, in aggregate, are much heavier than the human population. Humans outweigh both sheep and pigs put together. This is surprising as these animals outweigh the population in the countries that produce the majority of meat from such animals.
Our pets and livestock
There are 8 distinct blocks of wild animal (elephants and 7 others). There are 13 distinct blocks of pets and live stock; only the top 5 are labeled - in order of weight they are: Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Goats and Horses. Cattle, in aggregate, are much heavier than the human population.
| Total Rank | Weight (Millions of tons) | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 520 | Cattle |
| 3 | 135 | Sheep |
| 4 | 90 | Pigs |
| 5 | 39 | Goats |
| 6 | 29 | Horses |
| 7 | 13 | Unlabeled |
| 9 | 8 | Unlabeled |
| 10 | 7 | Unlabeled |
| 10 | 7 | Unlabeled |
| 13 | 6 | Unlabeled |
| 14 | 5 | Unlabeled |
| 17 | 3 | Unlabeled |
| 19 | 2 | Unlabeled |
Wild Animals
The elephant is the only type of wild animal to be singled out in the comic. This may possibly be due to elephants being the largest land mammal. Yes, the world's heaviest land animal only takes up one square.
| Rank | Weight (Millions of tons) | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 10 | Unlabeled |
| 10 | 7 | Unlabeled |
| 14 | 5 | Unlabeled |
| 16 | 4 | Unlabeled |
| 17 | 3 | Unlabeled |
| 19 | 2 | Unlabeled |
| 19 | 2 | Unlabeled |
| 22 | 1 | Elephants |
References
The comic references the book The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change by Vaclav Smil as the source for most of the data. A few other sources have also been used, but were not referenced. On page 186 of Smil's book, there is a bar chart with the following values:
| (Millions of tons) | Name |
|---|---|
| 0.8 | Elephants |
| 40 | Horses |
| 100 | Pigs |
| 450 | Cattle |
| 280 | People |
| 80 | Whales |
| 30 | all wild vertebrates |
| 650 | all domesticated vertebrates |
Note that all labelled non-human animals are in this table. It seems that this table was the source of most of the data in the comic. Only land dwelling mammals are taken into account. Whales, wild vertebrates, and domesticated vertebrates are not included in the comic.
Unlabeled Animals
|
This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Unfinished If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
These are guesses about the identity of the unlabeled animals
| Rank | Comic weight (Millions of tons) | Type | Guess | Actual Population (Millions) | Average Weight (kg) | Total weight (Millions of kg) | Estimated total weight (Millions of tons) | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 13 | Pets/Livestock | ||||||
| 8 | 10 | Wild animals | ||||||
| 9 | 8 | Pets/Livestock | ||||||
| 10 | 7 | Pets/Livestock | Camel | 17 | 412 | 7004 | Wikipedia lists the number of camels as 17 million. An average weight, based on Wikipedia's numbers for male and female, is about 500 kg. So, including the non-adult camels, an average around 400 kg seems to be a realistic estimate. | |
| 10 | 7 | Pets/Livestock | ||||||
| 10 | 7 | Wild animals | ||||||
| 13 | 6 | Pets/Livestock | Dogs | 400 | 15 | 6000 | According to Wikipedia, there are 400 million dogs worldwide. If the average weight is 15 kg, there would be 6 blocks. | |
| 14 | 5 | Pets/Livestock | Donkeys | 41 | 122 | 5002 | There are roughly 41 million donkeys on Earth, with an average weight of about 125 kg. | |
| 14 | 5 | Wild animals | ||||||
| 16 | 4 | Wild animals | ||||||
| 17 | 3 | Pets/Livestock | ||||||
| 17 | 3 | Wild animals | ||||||
| 19 | 2 | Pets/Livestock | Cats | 500 | 4 | 2000 | There are 500 million domestic cats worldwide. The average weight of an adult cats is 4.5 kg. Factoring in the lighter weight of immature cats, 4kg as an average for all cats, (adult and immature) is within the range of possibility. | |
| 19 | 2 | Wild animals | ||||||
| 19 | 2 | Wild animals | Rat | 4000 | 0.5 | 2000 | The World Health Organization estimates 4 billion rats[citation needed] worldwide. The average weight of an adult rat is under over 500 g. | |
Transcript
- Earth's LAND MAMMALS by weight
- [A block indicating the value of each block:] = 1,000,000 tons
- [Dark gray block:] Humans
- [Light gray block:] Our pets and livestock
- [Green block:] Wild animals
- [The rest of the comic consist of blocks representing the weight of mammals. Some of the blocks are labeled:]
- Cattle
- Pigs
- Goats
- Sheep
- Elephants
- Horses
- Data from Vaclav Smil's The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change, plus a few other sources.
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ 
refresh comments!Discussion
Is it mass or weight? --173.245.53.119 06:38, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- It says weight. Since most land animals live on the... land, there is not much difference. I suppose if a lot of aninimals lived near a prime pole vaulting location it could skew the results. 108.162.246.117 06:40, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- Ton is a unit of the quantity mass, not weight. Weight is a force and forces would be measured in newtons. Hence the comic is making a mistake. One that 99% of the people do. Mass would be correct since it is a more fundamental quantity and is usually what is meant when people talk about weight. 108.162.254.105 18:29, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
- Ton is actually a unit of weight, at least assuming the comic is using the short ton (widely used in the US). 1 ton = 2000 pounds, and pounds are a unit of weight. A metric ton, tonne, and long ton are units of mass, defined as a quantity of kilograms.108.162.219.206 18:32, 26 September 2014 (UTC)
- No, pound is a unit of mass as well. The pound-force is a unit of force. One pound-force is the amount of force exerted by Earth's gravity (under certain conditions, I have no idea which) on a pound of mass.Tharkon (talk) 20:37, 4 October 2014 (UTC)
- Ton is actually a unit of weight, at least assuming the comic is using the short ton (widely used in the US). 1 ton = 2000 pounds, and pounds are a unit of weight. A metric ton, tonne, and long ton are units of mass, defined as a quantity of kilograms.108.162.219.206 18:32, 26 September 2014 (UTC)
- Ton is a unit of the quantity mass, not weight. Weight is a force and forces would be measured in newtons. Hence the comic is making a mistake. One that 99% of the people do. Mass would be correct since it is a more fundamental quantity and is usually what is meant when people talk about weight. 108.162.254.105 18:29, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
- No, you're all wrong. Pound is a currency. 173.245.54.188 15:40, 7 October 2014 (UTC)
- Based on his comments on the subject in a What If comic, I strongly suspect that he doesn't care about the distinction in cases where: a) the values of the measurements are equal, and b) it's just a comic, not a research paper. Marcus Erronius (talk) 17:42, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
Weight and mass are synonyms for most people. For example Random House Dictionary says about weight:
- 1. the amount or quantity of heaviness or mass; amount a thing weighs.
- 2. Physics. the force that gravitation exerts upon a body, equal to the mass of the body times the local acceleration of gravity: commonly taken, in a region of constant gravitational acceleration, as a measure of mass.
Xhfz (talk) 23:54, 30 August 2015 (UTC)
I'm really curious, what are the other, unlabeled groupings? Author's website 108.162.215.46 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Velociraptors, I'd assume. 141.101.98.180 09:50, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
On page 186 of Smil's referenced book, there is a bar chart with the following values in millions of tons (*=not used in Randall's graphic):
- elephants 0.8
- horses 40
- pigs 100
- cattle 450
- people 280
- *whales 80
- *all wild vertebrates 30
- *all domesticated vertebrates 650
108.162.215.46 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I think that this graph is actually more illustrative of how much support humans need to maintain themselves (the amount of cattle is astonishing). lcarsos_a (talk) 07:58, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- need? I don't think we need so much cattle. It's just that most people prefer hamburgers and steaks to beans. So, how much we use to maintain ourselves would be better. (BTW, you don't count yourself as human?) -- Hkmaly (talk) 10:39, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- According to [1] there are 525 million dogs, assuming 20 kg as average weight, this should give 10 squares in the diagram. I can't find reliable numbers for cats, but there are more cats than dogs, but they don't weigh as much, so their total weight could be similar to that of the dogs. --108.162.254.160 08:42, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
The blob of 13 under the word Livestock may very well represent both dogs and cats. 108.162.215.46 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Layout of the blocks
Does anybody see a reason for the particular layout of the blocks? My first impression was a globe but obviously it doesn't correspond to any continents, etc. 108.162.254.66 08:44, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- I've been wondering myself... I do think it is a picture of something. My ideas so far: an eye, a fried egg, a cell. --Divad27182 (talk) 09:29, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- Yes, the overall layout is human-centric, but that doesn't explain the intentionally lumpy and asymmetric regions. It would have been easier to place the blocks in regular shapes (circular, rectangular or otherwise) but Randall chose to do it this way. Cell with a nucleus is a reasonable guess. - Frankie (talk) 14:00, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- I think it shows the relationship of the title text (assuming we are part of land mammals): there are about 1.2K squares in total representing a factor of 1K:1 overall. Thus the shape (resembling bacterium) is explained, the incorporation of all mammals into the shape, and the potential central location of humans (assuming most bacteria lives in our gut). 108.162.219.31 16:09, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- You know of ANY six legged mammal? Any six-appendages vertebrate I know of is mythological creature (like pegasus or some dragons) or non-earth origin (like tree cats or Pandora-native). -- Hkmaly (talk) 10:58, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
- I think we humans are afraid of the wild animals, and are huddling in the center and have either gathered the domesticated animals around us to protect us, or they have surrounded us on their own to protect us. Chrullrich (talk) 07:51, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
- Is it just me or is that a tip view of the human skull with eyes pointing left? Perhaps something about the placement indicates where we place the importance of these species in our minds? Wild guess and all that? -- Sean timmons (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Don't think there is anything to the layout, other than making it fit as a evenly distributed in a circle, placing the wild species near the domesticated relatives -- my vote is to remove the layout from the incomplete tag Spongebog (talk) 21:48, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
- Identifying the groups
I would love to identify specific groups. The unlabelled animals come in groups, even the wild animals, even though only *one* of those groups (elephants for some reason) has been labelled. —TobyBartels (talk) 13:05, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- Reason for elephant label == "This is how much/little the whole population of the largest land mammals amass to."? (Actually, given the scarcity of elephants, I'm surprised it's a full block. I suspect something else that could have been labelledsuch as "rats" would be far more.) 141.101.99.7 14:07, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
Per the wikipeda page[2] on camels I expect that they are the blob of 3 gray squares. Mwiser (talk) Update: I hadn't seen the 1 billion kg == 1 million tons notation which has since appeared. I therefore added camels (and also donkeys) to the table below. Mwiser (talk)
Non SI units should just die already. 108.162.241.8 20:39, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- Is Randall's ton the metric tonne or the US short ton? -- 108.162.219.65 22:06, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- Considering that Randall is very aware of the SI confusion, I'm sure he would have made it clear if he where NOT using metric tonne - so I would say his tonne is 1,000 kg! Kynde (talk) 08:53, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
- Considering that he's in the U.S. & he didn't specify "metric ton" or spell it "tonne" I'd assume the 2K lbs. American ton -- so maybe it's hard to say for sure! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But are the data even precise enough to draw this distinction at all, or is it drowned out by yearly fluctuations & sampling errors anyway? --172.68.133.168 03:35, 12 October 2018 (UTC)
- Stab at the numbers
| Land Mammal | population in Billions | Average Kilograms | Total Kilograms in Billions | xkcd value | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Humans | 7.2 | 70 | 504 | 358 | as of 2013 |
| Cattle | 1 | 1740 | 1740 | 520 | as of 2012 |
| Pigs | 1 | 350 | 350 | 90 | |
| Chickens | 19 | 1 | 19 | not mammals | |
| Goats | 0.865 | 46 | 39.7 | 39 | as of 2008... src |
| Sheep | 1 | 80 | 80 | 135 | |
| Elephants | 0.000105670 | 5000 | 0.5 | 1 | as of 2012 src |
| Horses | 0.058372106 | 500 | 29 | 29 | as of 2006 src |
| Rats | 10 | 0.35 | 3.5 | 2 | 10B is a guess |
| Cats | 0.6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Dogs | 0.4 | 40 | 16 | 6 | |
| Seal | 0.022 | 200 | 4.4 | not a land mammal | |
| Mole | 0.075 | Numbers are slightly exaggerated, but it would be nice to have those quantities | |||
| Krill | ? | ? | 175-725 | Wild species with largest biomass (not a land mammal)src | |
| Camel | 0.014 | 465 | 6.51 | As of 2010 src | |
| Donkey | 0.04 | 160 | 6.4 | As of 206 src mass src |
- 1 billion kg == 1 million tons src
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heaviest_land_mammals
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_mammals_by_population
108.162.241.8 16:19, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- Talk about the table
- uhh.... chickens aren't... mammals? (?) Brettpeirce (talk) 17:22, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- Apparently not. http://www.ask.com/question/are-chickens-mammals --RenniePet (talk) 03:23, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
- fixed 108.162.241.8 19:39, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
- Where does these XKCD numbers come from? Cattle 1740? Humans 556? According to the comic there are 520 Cattle and 358 Humans (million ton). This table makes no sence in the XKCD number department. Appart from that it would be a great table to include in the comic... Kynde (talk) 08:52, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
- fixed 108.162.241.8 19:39, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
- Where does the average weight come from? As the human race is very young (26% below 15 years) and the cattle population has is changed very rapidly - thus there will also be many calves all the time - reducing the average weight far below that of an average adult animal ready to made in to beef... Kynde (talk) 09:55, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
- Click on the wiki links below the table and a few more clicks you will find the numbers... add direct source links if you like 108.162.241.8 19:39, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
- Maybe the seal is considered a land mammal by Randal? Only wales are really not land mamals. The link to elephant population seems only to cover African elephants not Asian... Kynde (talk) 11:01, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
- Does Randall consider cattle to be all the genus Bos? Waterbuffalo for example weigh about 400kg and wikipedia claims a world population of 130M. That would be 52 blocks. So, I'd assume that since there aren't any free blocks that large, that they are considered cattle. So, then Yaks and Wildebeests should be considered cattle as well, no? 108.162.215.36 22:06, 7 March 2014 (UTC)rbnm
- Sorry I meant Tribe Bovini not genus Bos 108.162.215.36rbnm
- Rodentia? If the average rodent weighs something like 0.67kg, then 15B rodents would make up 13 squares. 0.67kg comes from the log average of the smallest and largest. If this includes rats (4B per the WHO) - is it reasonable that the rest of Rodentia includes 11B, 1-2 rodents per person on the Earth? That would include: squirrels, porcupines, beavers, guinea pigs, and hamsters; although guinea pigs might be considered pet/livestock (mmm... cuye!). 108.162.215.36 23:56, 7 March 2014 (UTC)rbnm
- Title Text
The title text mentions that bacteria outweigh humans by thousands (plural) to one. The notation 1000:1 used in the explanation is therefore not correct.
- True - I did not spot that. I have corrected it to the same version as the title textKynde (talk) 19:15, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
- Rabbit
This mammals belong to "Pets/Livestock" and "Wild animals". Any ideas where this does fit in here? --Dgbrt (talk) 23:47, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
- There are several other animals where there could be both a wild and a domesticated (or pet) version. Foes Zoo animals count as pets? Elephant is a good example as they are domesticated in India. Is domesticated only animals where we have changed them - like cows and pigs? In that case the elephant is not domesticated - as it has not been breed into a different race... -- Kynde (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Deer
This belongs to "Wild animals". Any ideas where this does fit in here? --Dgbrt (talk) 23:52, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
- Smil table
he singles out elephants in the table, and uses Mt of Carbon as a unit. The % of carbon is ~18,5% in humans (I guess this is pretty average for mnammals too, so checking the numbers should take this in to account.
Guessing the unlabeled groups is a pretty futile exercise, are yaks cattle or not, what of reindeers, are both camels and llama and alpacas marked separately. largest wild is likely though rodents, and the smallest likely all wild carnivora. odd-toeds, even-toeds, marsupials, all other mammals are some other likely groups in the 'wilds' section.108.162.212.8 04:40, 26 March 2014 (UTC)
Anyone in the US want to spend a few dollars to try and clear up these unlabelled groups? The book used by Randall in creation of this comic is available on amazon. --Pudder (talk) 15:55, 1 October 2014 (UTC)
- Revised Article Requirements
Many people have taken a significant amount of time to figure out what animals are part of what group. Clearly this is not possible without a significant amount of interpretation. I am removing this "need" so that this article can be marked completed at some point in time, preferably before the Sun burns out. 108.162.216.209 20:27, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
Percentages by Category
|
Human, Livestock and Pet |
|
||
|
1 |
520 |
Cattle |
41% |
|
2 |
358 |
(Humans) |
29% |
|
3 |
135 |
Sheep |
11% |
|
4 |
90 |
Pigs |
7% |
|
5 |
39 |
Goats |
3% |
|
6 |
29 |
Horses |
2% |
|
7 |
13 |
Unlabeled |
1% |
|
9 |
8 |
Unlabeled |
1% |
|
10 |
7 |
Unlabeled |
1% |
|
10 |
7 |
Unlabeled |
1% |
|
13 |
6 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
14 |
5 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
17 |
3 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
19 |
2 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
Wild |
|
|
|
|
8 |
10 |
Unlabeled |
1% |
|
10 |
7 |
Unlabeled |
1% |
|
14 |
5 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
16 |
4 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
17 |
3 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
19 |
2 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
19 |
2 |
Unlabeled |
0% |
|
22 |
1 |
Elephants |
0% |
|
|
1256 |
|
100% |
