What is the most successful species?

Edited

This SciShow episode mentions some numerous animals though it doesn't give numbers for many but bacteria will probably outnumber any animals. Of course that's using population size as the measure of success..........

From the video:

Antarctic krill, 500 trillion
House mice, about equal to humans
Red billed Quelea, 1.5 billion
Ants of all species, trillions
Bristlemouth fish (12 species), 100 trillions to quadrillions
Copepods of all species, unmentioned but more than any animal (?)
Springtails of all species, 100,000 per square meter of soil

Edit: Springtail math

Earth land - 148 000 000 sq km
In square meters - 148 000 000 000 000
100 000 per sq m - 14 800 000 000 000 000 000 individual springtails

[–] smallpond 4 points (+4|-0)

Edited

Humans do pretty well when using biomass as a measure of success - though Antarctic krill may have us beat. Ants are a number of different species so shouldn't be counted together - cattle might also be counted as a group of species.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)

Edit: Ok, I've only considered animals.

[–] phoxy 2 points (+2|-0)

Edited

I didn't think to use mass I went straight for population. That article is really good and humbling in a sense- we and our domesticants are a massive influence but are dominated by fungi, plants, ants and bacteria. Not individual species but in terms of biomass or life.

Edit: I think cattle are considered 1 species like dogs.

[–] smallpond 2 points (+2|-0)

I've heard there's some debate among biologists concerning whether cattle should be classed as one or a few species (Bos taurus, Bos primigenius, Bos indicus). Who cares.

[–] smallpond 3 points (+3|-0)

Another measure of success is how long the species has managed to survive on earth. Again there's some uncertainly concerning what is a single species, but this article is interesting.

[–] InnocentBystander 2 points (+2|-0)

I'm gonna say cat.
Dogs have it pretty good too, but they are often expected to work or obey. Cats are assholes, and we just accept it.

[–] Skyrock 1 points (+1|-0)

When we get dug up in a few millennia, scientists will assume that cats were the ruling class of our time.

[–] [Deleted] 2 points (+2|-0)

all of the aliens that are ignoring us. don't be prometheus.

[–] jobes 2 points (+2|-0)

Waterbears. Fucking things can live in not only the most extreme hot and cold places on earth, but can survive being exposed to the vacuum of space.

[–] PMYA [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

I was going to suggest these things but I couldn't remember what they were called.

Black Science Man told me about them.

[–] jobes 1 points (+1|-0)

I learneded about them from black science guy too

What is the most successful species?

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/s/AskPhuks