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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><A
title="‘Hundreds of thousands’ of undiscovered marine species await discovery"
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/hundreds-of-thousands-of-undiscovered-marine-species-await-discovery.html"
rel=bookmark><FONT color=#000000 size=4>‘Hundreds of thousands’ of undiscovered
marine species await discovery</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV class=wpn-byline>by <SPAN class="author vcard"><A class="url fn n"
title="Daniel Cressey"
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/author/Daniel-Cressey"><FONT
color=#000000>Daniel Cressey</FONT></A></SPAN><SPAN class=divider> </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=wpn-byline><SPAN class=divider><SPAN class=published><ABBR
class=value title=2012-11-15>15 Nov 2012 </ABBR></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=wpn-byline><SPAN class=divider><SPAN class=published><ABBR
class=value title=2012-11-15><A
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/hundreds-of-thousands-of-undiscovered-marine-species-await-discovery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Frss%2Fnewsblog+%28News+Blog+-+Blog+Posts%29&WT.ec_id=NEWS-20121120">http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/11/hundreds-of-thousands-of-undiscovered-marine-species-await-discovery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Frss%2Fnewsblog+%28News+Blog+-+Blog+Posts%29&WT.ec_id=NEWS-20121120</A></ABBR></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=wpn-byline><SPAN class=divider><SPAN class=published><ABBR
class=value title=2012-11-15></ABBR></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
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<DIV class="wpn-entry-content content">
<DIV style="WIDTH: 217px" id=attachment_24747 class="wpn-caption alignright">
<DIV align=center><A class=wpn-image-link
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/worms-one.jpg"><IMG
class="size-full wp-image-24747 wpn-image" alt=""
src="http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/worms-one.jpg" width=217
height=217></A></DIV>
<DIV class=caption align=center><FONT size=1>Larva of Homarus americanus. WoRMS
Photo Gallery / Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Jean-François St-Pierre,
2011.</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<P>There may not be as many fish in the sea as was thought, to say nothing of
all the other organisms.</P>
<P>In the past researchers have produced wildly differing estimates of how many
eukaryotes – and other organisms – remain undiscovered in our oceans. Now a new
analysis tied to the first comprehensive register of marine species has come up
with a figure somewhere under one million.</P>
<P>While the number of 700,000 to 1 million reported this week in <EM>Current
Biology</EM> is not as high as some previous estimates – which have ranged as
high as 10 million – there is some positive news for lovers of all things sea:
between one and two thirds of all species in the seas may remain to be
discovered.</P>
<P>The new estimate stems from an online database called the <A
href="http://www.marinespecies.org/"><FONT color=#1f699b>World Register of
Marine Species</FONT></A> (WoRMS), set up to provide a central place for
scientists to access information.</P>
<P>“Scientists have been describing species in the ocean – and on land – for
more than 250 years but there has never been a central place where everything
gets recorded. The only thing a scientist needs to do is publish a paper,” says
Ward Appeltans, a taxonomist at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
of UNESCO. “The result is a lot of species have been described more than once
and a lot have been described with the same name. There was becoming a lot of
confusion over the names.”</P>
<DIV style="WIDTH: 363px" id=attachment_24748 class="wpn-caption alignleft"><A
class=wpn-image-link
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/worms-two.jpg"><IMG
class="size-full wp-image-24748 wpn-image" alt=""
src="http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/worms-two.jpg" width=363
height=207></A>
<DIV class=caption><FONT size=1>Thyrolambrus efflorescens crab. </FONT><FONT
size=1>WoRMS Photo Gallery / Paulay, Gustav, 2010.</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<P>The team behind WoRMS found, for example, that for cetaceans (whales and
dolphins) there are 1,271 names for only 87 actual species. WoRMS is now up and
running and contains around 214,000 of the estimated 222,000 and 230,000 marine
eukaryotes that have been described by researchers across the globe (examples
pictured).</P>
<P>Once they had the database set up the team went about working out how many
animals had yet to be discovered. They asked a subset of their taxonomy team to
estimate how many animals they thought were undiscovered in their areas of
expertise. This yielded a likely total of 704,000 to 972,000. In their paper
they also note that past estimates have ranged from under 500,000 to over 10
million.</P></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV style="WIDTH: 277px" id=attachment_24749 class="wpn-caption alignright"><A
class=wpn-image-link
href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/worms-three.jpg"><IMG
style="WIDTH: 202px; HEIGHT: 218px" class="size-full wp-image-24749 wpn-image"
alt="" src="http://blogs.nature.com/news/files/2012/11/worms-three.jpg"
width=277 height=350></A>
<DIV class=caption><FONT size=1>Medusa Haliclystus californiensis. </FONT><FONT
size=1>WoRMS Photo Gallery / Collins, Allen G., 2012.</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P>“Often these estimates are based just on the opinion of one person,” says
Appeltans. “We thought if we had this core group of experts together, if we cut
everything into small pieces and glue them together we probably have a less
biased view.”</P>
<P>To check their estimates the researchers also constructed a statistical model
based on the rate of species discovery. This suggested that the total number of
species in the seas is likely 320,000 to 760,000. This means somewhere between
one and two thirds of all marine species remain to be discovered. If marine
scientists keep up the current rate of discovery, all these should be in the bag
by the end of the century.</P></SECTION><!-- .entry-content -->
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