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Humanity knows less than 15 percent of the world's species http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1314191774
Scientists have named, cataloged, and described less than 2 million species in the past two and a half centuries, yet, according to an new innovative analysis, we are no-where near even a basic understanding of the diversity of life on this small blue planet. The study in PLoS Biology, which is likely to be controversial, predicts that there are 8.7 million species in the world, though the number could be as low as 7.4 or as high as 10 million. The research implies that about 86 percent of the world's species have still yet to be described....
"We have only begun to uncover the tremendous variety of life around us," says co-author Alastair Simpson, also with Dalhousie. "The richest environments for prospecting new species are thought to be coral reefs, seafloor mud and moist tropical soils. But smaller life forms are not well known anywhere. Some unknown species are living in our own backyards—literally."
Less is even known about the threats to species in what scientists say is an age of mass extinction.
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[Read more stories about:
sixth extinction, unintended consequences, pesticide runoff, deforestation, ocean acidification, ecosystem interrelationships]
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