[Taxacom] see no weevil, hear no weevil, speak no weevil ...

[Roderic Page]

Isn't it interesting that two papers have appeared recently that both estimate the number of species, both use essentially the same data (e.g., Catalogue of Life and WoRMS), and yet they arrive at very different answers?

The two papers are listed here: http://iphylo.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-many-species-are-there-and-why-do.html

Rather than dismiss one or other (or both) of the studies, surely the question is how come the results are so different?

Regards

Rod


On 3 Oct 2011, at 04:41, Stephen Thorpe wrote:

> this is surely worth a read:
> http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/5707449/Globes-species-may-number-just-two-million
>  
> throwing numbers around like baked beans in a kindergarten ...
>  
> I very much doubt that 100 years from now, even all the species which live on the Tamaki Campus here will have been described and documented! The rate of description of mites, nematodes, micro-Hymenoptera, micro-fungi, etc. is very low, but the actual diversity is high ...
>  
> In the tropical rainforests, who can even guess how many species are present??
>  
> Stephen
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---------------------------------------------------------
Roderic Page
Professor of Taxonomy
Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Email: r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk
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