Biodiversity Overview and Species Count

Diversity of Life

• Approximately 1,375,500 living animal species are known
• At least 500,000 extinct animal forms are described
• Nearly 17,000 new species are discovered annually
• Beetles are among the most common life forms on Earth
• An inventory of living organisms is far from complete.

Species Count and Estimation

• One species a second = 12 days, 23 hours of continuous procession.

• A "species-scape" visually represents the relative number of species in different groups (e.g., mammals, insects)

• Living organisms (including plants, fungi, bacteria) are estimated at 2.3 million species; some estimations range from 3-10 million.

• Terry Erwin's study, using fogging, estimated that there might be 33 million species on Earth.

• Overlapping species study within a 50m radius showed only 8.7% overlap.

• One tree species contained 163 unique beetle species.

• Beetles comprise approximately 40% of all insects.

Importance of Species Diversity

• The number of species presently existent and the losses are largely unknown.
• Human understanding of Earth's species is limited.
• Ecosystem services are essential for human survival, and the loss of species can negatively impact these services.