There are approximately 7.6 billion people on earth.1
Somewhere between 19 to 24 billion chickens.2,3
But what is the most common vertebrate species on the planet? And how many of them are there?
The answer, it turns out, is the humble bristlemouth fish (Latin family name Gonostomatidae), and it numbers in the Hundreds. Of. Trillions. (And possibly, according to some estimates, in the quadrillions.)4 An unassuming family of fishes, the bristlemouths range in size from 1 to 11 inches5 and prefer the mid-ocean depths of about 0.5 to 1 mile down.6
You can read more about the bristlemouth fish in this fascinating expose!
(For the record: if you’re wondering what the most abundant animal of any kind is, it’s not an insect — it’s the nematode, which apparently accounts for 4 out of every 5 living creatures on earth.7)
