| MadSci Network: Cell Biology |
Janise-
As far as I was able to tell, no one has counted the exact number of cells in a cheetah or tiger. But we can make an educated guess.
It's estimated that the adult human has about one
hundred trillion cells
(1014 or 100,000,000,000,000!). If say the average human is
somewhere between 150-200 lbs
(lbs = pounds), and that a tiger and cheetah's cells are around the same
size as ours, we can try to
figure out the rough number of cells in these other animals. The average
weight of a cheetah is
about 150 lbs, and the average weight of a tiger is about 500 lbs.
That would suggest that the cheetah has somewhere around the same number
of cells as a person, while
a tiger would be 500lbs/200lbs to 500/150 or 2.5 - 3 times the number of
cells as a person. So let's
say about 3 hundred trillion cells are in a tiger (but since that number
of cells for human is
pretty rough, it would be safest to say that they probably have about 2.5 -
3 times as many cells as
we do).
A trillion seems like a lot - but it's really a LOT! To give you an idea of how large a number a trillion is, consider this: One trillion seconds = ( 1012 sec)/( 3.16 x 107 sec/yr) = 31,546 years!
I hope this provides you with the answer you're looking for. Please submit another question if we can help you out more!
-Alex G
cgoddard@fas.harvard.edu
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Cell Biology.