Antarctic krill are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that can be found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. They are very small in size, usually 2g or less, but because of the fact that they are one of Earth’s most abundant animals, their combined biomass is one of Earth’s heaviest. (Check out a comparison of the combined biomasses of different animal species here). There are anywhere between 125 and 725 million tonnes of Antarctic krill, though common estimates suggest the number is around 500 million.
This is higher than the estimated 335 million tonnes of human biomass (that is, the weight of all 6.7 billion of us together). The disparity is even higher if we’re just counting dry biomass, which would exclude the water that makes up the majority of human mass.
interesting website from the Australian government to learn more about krill and other Antarctic wildlife.
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