World registry, nearing completion, confirms 228,450 known marine species; consolidation relegates 190,400 other "species"
New York:
Over 1,000 new-to-science marine fish species have been described since 2008 -- an average of more than 10 per month -- according to scientists completing a consolidated inventory of all known ocean life.
Among fish species newly-described worldwide are 122 new sharks and rays, 131 new members of the goby family, and a new barracuda found in the Mediterranean.
All are contained in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), a landmark international effort to unite all existing knowledge of sea life.
In the past eight years, the effort has identified as redundant aliases almost half the names assigned over two and a half centuries to ocean dwelling creatures.
Merging scores of global databases, the more than 200 editors of WoRMS found almost 419,000 species names in literature worldwide, of which 190,400 (45%) were deemed duplicate identities. One species of sea snail alone had 113 different names (see elaboration below).
WoRMS editors have contracted to 228,450 the number of species currently known to science. About 195,000 (86%) of them are sea animals, including just over 18,000 species of fish described since the mid-1700s, more than 1,800 sea stars, 816 squids, 93 whales and dolphins and 8,900 clams and other bivalves. The rest are species of kelp, seaweeds and other plants, bacteria, viruses, fungi and single cell organisms.
Based at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Belgium, WoRMS is a collaborative scientific triumph, constituting a single, authoritative reference list of all marine species described since the pioneering work of Carl Linnaeus.
1,451 new-to-science marine creatures added in 2014
In 2014 alone, some 1,451 new-to-science marine creatures were added to WoRMS-an average of four per day.
Though a few relatively minor gaps remain, we consider the register now virtually complete with respect to species described throughout scientific history,"says WoRMS co-chair Jan Mees, Chair of the European Marine Board and Director of VLIZ. "And, of course, we are constantly updating with newly-described species, revisions of taxonomy, and adding occasional species that have been overlooked."
Dr. Mees adds that an estimated 10,000 or more new-to-science species are in laboratory jars around the world today waiting to be described.
Amazingly, says WoRMS fish specialist Nicolas Bailly of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, new species of relatively large animals are still regularly discovered and described.
Scientists last year also described 12 new marine life families and 141 new genera (family and genus ranking higher than species on the eight-rung ladder of life's scientific classification).
A new genus of animal (Dendrogramma, with two associated species (Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dengrogramma discoides) does not readily fit into an existing phylum -the top classification in the animal kingdom. Further research will resolve the issue but could lead to the historic addition of a new life classification.
New York:
Over 1,000 new-to-science marine fish species have been described since 2008 -- an average of more than 10 per month -- according to scientists completing a consolidated inventory of all known ocean life.
Among fish species newly-described worldwide are 122 new sharks and rays, 131 new members of the goby family, and a new barracuda found in the Mediterranean.
All are contained in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), a landmark international effort to unite all existing knowledge of sea life.
In the past eight years, the effort has identified as redundant aliases almost half the names assigned over two and a half centuries to ocean dwelling creatures.
Merging scores of global databases, the more than 200 editors of WoRMS found almost 419,000 species names in literature worldwide, of which 190,400 (45%) were deemed duplicate identities. One species of sea snail alone had 113 different names (see elaboration below).
WoRMS editors have contracted to 228,450 the number of species currently known to science. About 195,000 (86%) of them are sea animals, including just over 18,000 species of fish described since the mid-1700s, more than 1,800 sea stars, 816 squids, 93 whales and dolphins and 8,900 clams and other bivalves. The rest are species of kelp, seaweeds and other plants, bacteria, viruses, fungi and single cell organisms.
Based at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Belgium, WoRMS is a collaborative scientific triumph, constituting a single, authoritative reference list of all marine species described since the pioneering work of Carl Linnaeus.
1,451 new-to-science marine creatures added in 2014
In 2014 alone, some 1,451 new-to-science marine creatures were added to WoRMS-an average of four per day.
Though a few relatively minor gaps remain, we consider the register now virtually complete with respect to species described throughout scientific history,"says WoRMS co-chair Jan Mees, Chair of the European Marine Board and Director of VLIZ. "And, of course, we are constantly updating with newly-described species, revisions of taxonomy, and adding occasional species that have been overlooked."
Dr. Mees adds that an estimated 10,000 or more new-to-science species are in laboratory jars around the world today waiting to be described.
Amazingly, says WoRMS fish specialist Nicolas Bailly of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, new species of relatively large animals are still regularly discovered and described.
Scientists last year also described 12 new marine life families and 141 new genera (family and genus ranking higher than species on the eight-rung ladder of life's scientific classification).
A new genus of animal (Dendrogramma, with two associated species (Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dengrogramma discoides) does not readily fit into an existing phylum -the top classification in the animal kingdom. Further research will resolve the issue but could lead to the historic addition of a new life classification.
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