[Taxacom] How far are we to completing a world genus/specieslisting for animals

[Stephen Thorpe]

I assume Joel was meaning just named taxa?




________________________________
From: Robin Leech <releech at telusplanet.net>
To: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>; Joel Hallan 
<joelhallan at hotmail.com>; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Sent: Tue, 3 August, 2010 4:13:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] How far are we to completing a world genus/specieslisting 
for animals

Well, it all depends on a few things.  If you believe that there are only about
4 million species, we are getting closer.  If you believe that there are 
anywhere
from 30 million to over 100 million, then we have a long way to go to complete
the world listing of genus/species.

Another point to keep in mind is that there have been extinctions at the 95% or
greater something like 5 times. So, if we have ONLY 30 million today, and
this total is what has mushroomed from the 5% remainder, and this has
happened 5 times, and figuring that previous species levels were at the 30
million level, then it looks like all the fossils will contribute - if we can 
ever find
them - 120 million, and that the extant will contribute 30 million for a total 
of
150 million.

And, we have been creating our own fossils.  All those species we collected when
they were extant, and which we and other processes killed off are now extinct,
are fossils, no?

So, we have a long, long way to go.

Robin

----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
To: "Joel Hallan" <joelhallan at hotmail.com>; <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 9:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] How far are we to completing a world genus/specieslisting 
for animals


> How far are we to completing a world genus/species listing for animals?


An interesting question out of the blue!

Well, it can only ever be made up-to-date, of course, never "complete"

With so many more or less independent initiatives all working in parallel, I
wonder who you mean by "we"?

I can only speak for Wikispecies, and even then I can only say that progress is
rapid, but I have no exact idea how far we are from up-to-date ...

why do you ask?

Stephen


________________________________
From: Joel Hallan <joelhallan at hotmail.com>
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Sent: Tue, 3 August, 2010 3:47:38 PM
Subject: [Taxacom] How far are we to completing a world genus/species listing
for animals


How far are we to completing a world genus/species listing for animals?

Joel Hallan
Austin, Texas
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