Alpha 108 - Marine Biodiversity

The great unknown! Just how many plants and animals do we share planet Earth with? We do not know.

Estimates of the numbers of species on Earth vary widely, from 4 million to more than 100 million. In 1995, the United Nations Environment Programme conservatively estimated in the Global Biodiversity Assessment that there may be about 13.6 million. About 13% of these (less than 2million species), have been formally described since 1753 and 1758, the official starting dates for botanical and zoological names respectively.

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