According to what's being called the most accurate estimate of life on Earth to date, humans share the planet with about 8.7 million different life forms. The majority of those species are insects and live on land. Only one-quarter (2.2 million) are in the ocean, which is amazing, considering 70% of the Earth's surface is water.
The study makes us aware of just how little we know about life on Earth. "Scientists have been working on this question of how many species for so many years," said Dr Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The fact is that 86% of all plants and animals on land and 91% of those in the oceans have not yet been named or catalogued, the study reported. "The truth is we are still so ignorant … There is still not a plot of tropical forest anywhere in the world that has been inventoried completely—not even a hectare," said Rob Dunn, author of 'Every Living Thing.' This means that only 14% of creatures on Earth have been logged—and only a mere 9% of those in the seas.
At the current pace, it would take 300,000 specialists 1,200 years to describe the new discoveries and enter them into a database. That would mean that many species will be extinct before we even become aware of their existence.
