• @[email protected]
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    9 months ago

    There’s a grain of truth in here, but not quite. One in every four or so (not quite, but we can roll with it regardless) identified species of animal is a beetle. Not one in every four animals, by population nor overall species.

    The reasons for this is are many, but may include because beetles are big, easy to catch, agriculturally-significant, and are particularly easy to pin and study, dramatically boosting the count of beetle species we work with on an academic level (lending to higher identification rates). There are also just a shitload of beetle species, naturally.

    Scientists estimate something closer to ~10 million species of animals, which would still make beetles a huge percentage of the species, but a far cry from 25%. If you looked at the total number (estimated) of individual animals, beetles are pretty insignificant.

    Source: Studied entomology and love me some Coleoptera

    • Nepenthe
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      9 months ago

      By namesake, my child should be a Beatle. Not sure if this means I am or that I have to marry a beetle to genetically make that happen. The whole question feels incestuous.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍
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    319 months ago

    The biomass of all living ants is greater than the biomass of every living human.

    As long as we don’t count your mom.

  • @python
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    49 months ago

    Gregor Samsa time whoop whoop

    • @[email protected]
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      29 months ago

      Have you awoken one morning from unsettling dreams and found yourself changed into a monstrous vermin in your bed? Then this tweet is for you.

  • Gormadt
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    9 months ago

    Welcome to the wonderful world of statistics, shit can look pretty fucky sometimes

    Edit: Basically this is a question of distribution in regards to statistics. Ie: statistically speaking you’re almost completely hydrogen because our universe is almost completely hydrogen.

  • TWeaK
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    19 months ago

    For every different type of beetle there is, and the 1800s tell us there are a great many, there exists a species of parasitic wasp that uniquely targets that beetle.