Abundant Animals: The Most Numerous Organisms in the World

It hardly comes as a surprise that ants are the most numerous insect in the world. These colonial hymenopterans may number from 10-100,000 trillion individuals globally; there are more than 10,000 species. The springtails, or Collembola, used to hold the title, but they are no longer officially insects, but rather part of a larger subphylum that includes insects and several related creatures. Though a few species are considered pests, ants are hugely benefical in most environments, spreading seeds and disposing of detritus as they forage for food.

The copepods, in addition to being the world’s most numerous crustacean, may also in fact be the world’s most populous multi-celled organism. Found in fresh and salt water worldwide, the roughly 12,000 species are key participants in all of the ecosystems they inhabit. Most are vase-shaped creatures only several millimeters long. Moving through the water by means of paddle-like appendages, they ravenously hunt down tinier organisms such as bacteria and algae, and are in turn food for organisms as diverse as fish fry and baleen whales. Some are even parasitic. Their numbers are such that divers often hear a crackling sound around them as millons of copepods move through the current.

The bristlemouths, or lightfishes, are considered the most numerous fish on the planet, exceeding even the famously plentiful herring in numbers, and are also the most numerous vertebrate, period. They comprise the family Gonostomatidae, which contains over 30 species. Bristlemouths are deep sea fishes, and, as befitting their pitch-black environs, boast rows of light-emitting organs called photophores along their sides. These monstrous little creatures form a key component of the ocean food web. Their ubiquity contrasts with their fragility: bristlemouths brought to the surface by deep-sea trawling are often damaged. Though perfectly suited to the ocean deep, their delicate black or translucent skins are no match for the abrasions and pressures changes sustained during capture. Just be glad the little suckers are aquatic...the oral "bristles" that give them their name look kind of stabby to me.

The most numerous species of amphibian is almost certainly a frog. Exactly which species of the slick-skinned critters is most populous remains unknown. The order Anura, which comprises frogs and toads, contains some 5,500 species, but many are rare or found only within a limited range. The common frog (Rana temporaria) ranges across much of Europe and the wood frog (Lithobates sylvatica) can be found plopping into the waters of even the more northerly portions of North America, which would make these species good bets. However, the fully aquatic African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) can be found throughout most of the African continent, particularly the southern portion, so it may give its cousins a run for their money. Whichever species boasts the most specimens, the likelihood of biblical plagues of frogs swarming modern cities is ever-diminishing: amphibians world-wide are threatened by the chytrid fungus, which can wipe out entire populations.

There are few firm estimates as to which species of reptile is actually the most numerous. There are a couple of likely guesses, though. The viviparous lizard inhabits a huge swath of Europe and Asia, from the U.K. and France to Japan and Russia; it can even tolerate the lower regions of the Arctic. Its name refers to its ability to give birth to live young in the colder regions of its range. The dozen or so species of garter snake that populate most of North America may come close in biomass. Whichever reptile it is, you can be sure it’s a lizard or snake. These creatures, which form the order Squamata, comprise the bulk of the Reptilia. Even herpetophobes can take comfort in the fact that the majority of these species are completely harmless. They also gobble up crop-damaging, disease-bearing rodents and insects, so there’s that.

Imagine Tippi Hedren’s horror. Native to some two-thirds of Africa, the red-billed quelea (Quelea quelea) is thought to be the most numerous species of bird on Earth. Estimates of the species’s population, which fluctuates from season to season, put the number of individual queleas at 1 to 10 billion. These birds closely resemble sparrows and finches, but are only distantly related. They form enormous flocks that migrate as the availability of the grass seeds they eat changes. They are among the most significant agricultural pests in Africa. With large flocks capable of decimating harvests, remediation measures such as aerial spraying with poison have been implemented, meaning that predators and scavengers who devour the avian amuse-bouche are poisoned as well.

Humans are likely the most numerous species of mammal on Earth at the moment. Having reached some 7 billion in 2011, we outnumber our fellow furries by a wide margin. The only species that may come close to (or exceed) us in numbers are the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and house mouse (Mus domesticus), whose evolutionary histories and distribution are closely tied to our own. Given that these rodents are unlikely to develop literacy skills and begin sending in census forms—NIMH escapees excepted—we’ll probably never know. Not sure which is grosser...more than 7 billion rats or more than 7 billion people.