[Taxacom] Costello-gate

[Stephen Thorpe]

Costello, M.J.; Wilson, S.; Houlding, B. (online, 2011): Predicting total global species richness using rates of species description and estimates of taxonomic effort. Systematic biology, doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syr080
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I continue to be astonished by this (and not in a good way!):
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[p. 17, quote]The higher rate of species discovery in the oceans suggests it has been getting relatively harder to discover new species on land[unquote]
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[p. 17, quote]However, if our predictions are proven true, it will soon become harder to find species new to science except amongst the smaller invertebrates in the less explored areas and habitats, and the description of most species on Earth would be a feasible goal this century[unquote]
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is it just me, or is this missing the MAJOR point that most species on Earth are "smaller invertebrates in the less explored areas"??
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Most of the debate about global biodiversity is centred on the tropical rainforests, and on "smaller invertebrates", and Costello ''et al'', appear to have completely glossed over the most crucial gaps in knowledge!
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This recent (2010) study is far more plausible: 
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19019-global-biodiversity-estimate-revised-down.html
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Stephen