Re: [dinosaur] Number of theropod individuals per species

[Thomas Richard Holtz <tholtz@umd.edu>]

I can't say the exact numbers are correct, but the general pattern there is true for theropods, and ornithischians, and sauropodomorphs, and pterosaurs, and fossil primates, and fossil batrachians, and... well, all fossil vertebrate species.

Most are known from <1 specimen (i.e., one incomplete skeleton). Some are known from a complete or a few partial individuals. A handful are known for lots of specimens.

On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 3:25 AM, Poekilopleuron <dinosaurtom2015@seznam.cz> wrote:

Good day,

in the book "The Complete T. rex" from 1993 Don Lessem and Jack Horner state, that 85 % of then known theropod species is known only from 1 to 5 specimen and that almost 50 % of known species is known from a single specimen. I would like to ask how does this situation changed (if it changed) in the course of almost 25 years from the publication of the book? Thank you, in advance. Tom

--

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
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