'Rev Dr' Lenny Flank wrote:

On Aug 15, 10:14 am, Free Lunch <lu...@nofreelunch.us> wrote:

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:03:19 -0400, "Robert J. Kolker"
<bobkol...@comcast.net> wrote in talk.origins:

'Rev Dr' Lenny Flank wrote:

How many bacteria are there on earth . . . . . . . . . .. ?

I think mass would be a better measure than number. Still, the insects
outweigh the mammalian population and are better adapted to Earth, as it
is, than mammals.
The first forms of line on this planet were one celled thingies. I
suspect such like organisms will be the last forms of life on this planet.

Don't bacteria outweigh insects?

I think they outweight ALL multicellular life.

Indeed, the deep-earth extremophiles, by themselves, might outweight
all multicellular life.

Life on earth is, always has been and probably always will be,
dominated by bacteria.  We multicellulars are just a flash in the pan.

I recall a stat that 70% of the entire biomass of the planet is microbial.  This was 10 years ago or more and the estimate has likely increased, but I can't find a source for this despite several minutes of googling; all I found was a Discover Magazine blogger claiming that Bacteria and Archaea comprise more than half the biomass of the planet but doesn't cite his source:

<http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2008/06/02/a-new-step-in-evolution/>