The second edition of Arthur Chapman’s report “Numbers of Living Species in Australia and the World” was launched this week.
The total number of described species in the world is estimated at just under 1,900,000 — well above the 1,786,000 in the previous report that was published in 2006 ((The figure for Australia, just under 150,000, is much lower than in the previous report; largely due to revised estimates of the number of insects.)). Chapman’s estimate of the total number of species is close to 11 million. A staggering 83% remain undescribed.
And not because taxonomist aren’t beavering away:
About 18,000 new species are being described each year (16,969 in 2006 and 18,516 in 2007). About 75% of the new species described in 2007 were invertebrates, 11% vascular plants and nearly 7% were vertebrates.
That is an impressive feat. But at this rate it will take until 2515 to describe all the species currently alive. Unfortunately, many of them will be extinct by then.