BIOtheNUMBERS

With frequent new discoveries, the number of valid scientific descriptions of species of fishes is always on the upswing.  Projections from 2006, self-described as conservative, put the eventual number  of living species to be close to 32,500.  Fishbase.org, updated in April 2009, has a searchable database of 31,200 species.

77 A.D.  – ~144 known species
1976 – 18,818 known species, 450 families
1984 – 21,723 known species, 445 families
1994 – 24,618 known species, 482 families
2006 – 27,977 known species, 515 families

Of the total species formally described in 2006, 42.7% (11,952) of species live in freshwater, 55.5% (15,520) of species live in seawater, and 1.8% (505) of species move between freshwater and oceans during their lifecycles. 

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ANIMALS:  Estimated 10 million species inhabit the earth. Of this estimate, a little more than 1.3 million have actually been named and described by the scientific community.
Natural rate of extinction described as less than one species per year for every million species.  However, habitat destruction has led experts to estimate the current annual rate of extinction is between 1,000 and 10,000 per million species.

Total Known Animal Species (2008)
Invertebrates – 1.3 million
Fish – 30,300
Birds – 10,000
Reptiles – 8,200
Amphibians – 5,700
Mammals – 5,400

PLANTS:  Approximately 300,000 species of plants have been identified out of a total global number of 320,000

Total known Plant Species (2001)
Flowering plants – 270,000
Conifers – 550
Ferns – 12,000
Cycads – 145
Club mosses – 1,000
Mosses and liverworts – 16,000