Ever wondered how humans stack up to cows, pigs or elephants if you were to gather ’em all up and weigh them? Wonder no longer, because this chart shows exactly that.
Created by XKCD’s Randall Munroe, this visualisation shows how the total weight of various land mammals stack up against each other. Each square represents one million tons; dark grey is humankind, pale grey pets and livestock, and green squares wild animals.
There are a few very obvious features. Cattle outweigh us by a terrifying margin — let’s never start a war with cows — and, despite their size, elephants barely even register, which is sad. Also, goats are far more present than I’d have expected. Any surprises for you?
Regardless, as Munroe points out, “bacteria still outweigh us thousands to one — and that’s not even counting the several pounds of them in your body.” Nice. [XKCD]