Science and Scientific Method

Is this science?

LiveScience : 1.7 billion Tyrannosaurus rexes walked the Earth before going extinct, new study estimates
News, By Harry Baker, 17.V.2023
https://www.livescience.com/animals/dinosaurs/17-billion-tyrannosaurus-rexes-walked-the-earth-before-going-extinct-new-study-estimates

In April 2021, a study published in the journal Science estimated that up to 2.5 billion T. rex individuals lived between 68 and 65.5 million years ago, whenroamed Earth. But a new study, published April 18 this year in the journal Palaeontology, has challenged that number, suggesting the actual figure is probably closer to 1.7 billion.

Do you know how much actual observed remains we have of T. Rex?

30 complete skeleta, plus lots of stray smaller bones.

That is what I recall from the site Palaeocritti. Now, the story is, it once was a paid site, and I enjoyed it. I came to know, perhaps they announced it on their site, that they were no longer paying as per 2016, and the site would close down. I obtained from Nobu Tamura the right to make a salvage blog, but by the end of 2016, I thought the work was needed no more. See here:

Palaeocritti Blog : Good News!
https://palaeocritti.blogspot.com/2016/11/good-news.html

Today, I wanted to go to the google site, remaining, unpaid, to verify the 30 skeleta, after writing above beginning of the essay mentioning them. I got a little shock:

Palaeocritti Blog : Bad News
https://palaeocritti.blogspot.com/2023/05/bad-news.html

Now, it is true, Palaeofieldguide is still up, but it is less precise, saying about T. Rex only "several skeletons" ...

But I think, even with the skeleta being "several" instead of precisely 30, we are very far from the claim of 1.7 or the other claim of 2.5 billion. This kind of extrapolation is to my best estimate not actually science.

Now, some will pretend that at least we have it from the scientific method. Therefore we should trust it, as the scientific method is where we get useful things from. The people who think like this should really watch a video called "the Engineering Method" ... it overdoes the lack of science, notably geometrical, by Medieval Cathedral builders, but it will at least show "modern science" as per after the "Scientific Revolution" is far from necessary for actually getting things done, and done well:

Building a Cathedral without Science or Mathematics: The Engineering Method Explained
engineerguy, 9 May 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ivqWN4L3zU

So, what were you saying again about us needing to trust science, because "scientific method" because that's the one and only thing providing useful knowledge? Nah, not really!/HGL