Wild world: Millions of unseen species fill earth
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The squat lobster found in 2005 in hydrothermal vents
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Our world is a much wilder place than it looks. A new study estimates
that Earth has almost 8.8 million species, but we've only discovered
about a quarter of them. And some of the yet-to-be-seen ones could be in
our own backyards, scientists say.
So far, only 1.9 million species have been found. Recent discoveries
have been small and weird: a psychedelic frogfish, a lizard the size of
a dime and even a blind hairy mini-lobster at the bottom of the ocean.
"We are really fairly ignorant of the complexity and colorfulness of
this amazing planet," said the study's co-author, Boris Worm, a biology
professor at Canada's Dalhousie University.
"We need to expose more people to those wonders. It really makes you
feel differently about this place we inhabit." While some scientists and
others may question why we need to know the number of species, others
say it's important.
There are potential benefits from these undiscovered species, which
need to be found before they disappear from the planet, said famed
Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who was not part of this study.
Some of modern medicine comes from unusual plants and animals.
"We won't know the benefits to humanity (from these species), which
potentially are enormous," the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wilson said. "If
we're going to advance medical science, we need to know what's in the
environment." Biologists have long known that there's more to Earth than
it seems, estimating the number of species to be somewhere between three
million and 100 million. Figuring out how much is difficult.
Worm and Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii used complex
mathematical models and the pace of discoveries of not only species, but
of higher classifications such as family to come up with their estimate.
- AP |
