How many species are there?

On the number of species on Earth and in the ocean

Below you will find a selection of photos that can be used under creative commons (i.e. use it as far as you acknowledge the photographer). Owners of copyrighted photos granted permission to use their photos only if the photographer`s name appears with the published photo. Click on the photos to get the original size files.
The artwork below is from the 1904 book Kunstformen der Natur "Art Forms of Nature" by Ernst Haeckel . Haeckel´s work include over 100 detailed, multi-colour illustrations of animals and sea creatures, in one of the first large descriptions of new species. The work of art itself is in the public domain because it has passed the 70 year old mark for copyright. More portraits can be found HERE
Credit: Ernst Haeckel	Credit: Ernst Haeckel	Credit: Ernst Haeckel
A selection of the thousands of new species described every year
Photo Credit: International Rice Research Institute (www.irri.org) Species Name: Oryza officinalis Described by: Wall, unknown date Yet to be discovered and catalogued, scientists estimate, are between 74,000 and 90,000 plant species, some of which may help increase world food production, according to the PLoS Biology commentary by Lord Robert May of Oxford. This wild rice, for example, photographed in the Philippines, inherently resists pests and diseases and tolerates extreme environmental conditions and its genes are used to improve cultivated rice varieties.	Photo Credit: Enrique MacPherson Species Name: Kiwa hirsuta Described by: Macpherson, Jones & Segonzac, 2006 This decapod, which is approximately 15 cm long, was found 1,500 km south of Easter Island at a depth of 2,200m, living on hydrothermal vents. The organism was deemed to form a new biological family (Kiwaidae).	Photo Credit: David Hall Please contact the author (david@seaphotos.com) for uses other than the cover of the Journal PLoS Biology Species Name: Histiophyrne psychedelica Described by: Pietsch, Arnold & Hall, 2009 An earlier specimen was collected in 1992 and misidentified as Histiophryne cryptacanthus. The specimen was preserved and placed on a shelf. No one returned to it until a recent rediscovery in 2008 when DNA analysis clarified the species as new and its description made the headlines of news outlets worldwide .
Photo Credit: Yoshihiro Fujiwara/JAMSTEC Species Name: Vigtorniella sp. A possible new species of polychaete worm. It was collected at the whale fall sampling habitat in Sagami Bay at a depth of 925 meters.	Photo Credit: Yoshihiro Fujiwara, JAMSTEC Species Name: Alviniconcha sp. This snail inhabits deep-sea hydrothermal vents and harbors chemoautotrophic symbionts in its gills. This individual, found at the Sulyo Seamount, Tokyo hydrothermal vent, is probably a new species. Only a single specimen has been discovered to date.	Photo Credit: Heloise Chenelot Species Name: Aleutihenricia federi Described by: Clark & Jewett, 2010 This new species of sea star was photographed off Green Island, Bay of Isles, Adak Island at a depth of 16 meters.
Photo Credit: Carlos Moura, CENSAM-Universidad de Aveiro Species Name: Tubiclavoides striatum Described by: Moura, Cunha & Schuchert, 2007 This new genus and new species of hydroid has been found to be common in the Gulf of Cadiz. Colonies were observed fixed on carbonate chimneys, coral debris, a polychaete tube, a sponge and another hydrozoan species. The widespread and frequent occurrence of this new species suggests that it is an important and regular faunal element of the deep-sea fauna of the northeast Atlantic.	Photo Credit: Brooke et al, NOAA-OE, HBOI This is believed to be a new species of a commensal amphipod	Photo Credit: NOAA Species Name: Tiburonia granrojo Described by: Matsumoto et al., 2003 This jellyfish can grow up to three meters (almost 10 feet) in diameter.
Photo Credit: Jorge Almeida Species Name: Tethina lusitanica Described by: Munari, Almeida & Andrade, 2009	Photo Credit: Josiah Townsend Species Name: Chrysina cavei Described by: Hawks & Bruyea, 1999	Photo Credit: Shipher Wu Species Name: Alcis taiwanovariegata Described by: Sato, 2008
Photo Credit: Shipher Wu Species Name: Herochroma supraviridaria Described by: Inoue, 1999	Photo Credit: Shipher Wu Species Name: Anaplectoides fuscivirens Described by: Sugi, 1995	Photo Credit: Josiah Townsend Species Name: Anolis morazani Described by: Townsend & Wilson, 2009
Photo Credit: Muzaffar Bukhari Species Name: Lanius schach Described by: Linnaeus, 1758 One the first species described 250 years ago by Linneus	Photo Credit: Risso Romain Species Name: Pycnonotus hualon Described by: Woxvold, Duckworth & Timmins, 2009	Photo Credit: Reynaldo da Fonseca Species Name: Myiopagis olallaii Described by: Coopmans & Krabbe, 2000
Photo Credit: Dario Sanches Species Name: Thalurania glaucopis Described by: Valdés & Schuchmann, 2009	Photo Credit: John Benson Species Name: Loxia sinesciuris Described by: Benkman, 2009	Photo Credit: Gossip Guy Species Name: Stachyris nonggangensis Described by: Fang & Aiwu, 2008
Photo Credit: Museum Wales Species Name: Sorbus cambrensis First found in 1874 and classed as Grey-leaved Whitebeam, recent biochemical analysis has shown this to be a new species	Photo Credit: Museum Wales Species Name: Sorbus leighensis A new species which has been known since the 1980s, but whose differences from the Grey-leaved Whitebeam has only recently been clarified using DNA	Photo Credit: Museum Wales Species Name: Sorbus scannelliana A new species first confirmed as distinct in September 2008
Photo Credit: Robert Lee Species Name: Okenia felis Described by: Gosliner, 2010	Photo Credit: NOAA This undescribed nudibranch was photographed in 2002 at the Davidson Seamount at depths of 1,497– 2,342 m. At 2008, it had not yet been formally described.	Photo Credit: Steve Childs Species Name: Halgerda batangas Described by: Carlson & Hoff, 2000
Photo Credit: Arie DeJong, info@dejongmarinelife.nl Species Name: Gramma dejongi Described by: Victor & Randall, 2010	Photo Credit: Keri Wilk, wilk@reefnet.ca Species Name: Emblemariopsis carib Described by: Victor 2010	Photo Credit: Keri Wilk Species Name: Elacatinus rubrigenis Described by: Victor 2010
Photo Credit: CSIRO A new species of Marginaster seastar was the first deep-sea Australian species in the genus	Photo Credit: CSIRO A new species of Trichopeltarion crab - a group of deepsea crabs, this species is restricted to seamounts in southeastern Australia	Photo Credit: Nobu Tamura Species Name: Crocodylus anthropophagus Described by: Brochu, Njau, Blumenschine & Densmore, 2010 This is an extinct species recently described.
Photo Credit: Alejandro Arteaga Species Name: Pristimantis gagliardoi Described by: Lehr, Moravec & Gagliard, 2010 The species was collected in the high Andes of southeastern Ecuador.	Photo Credit: Alejandro Arteaga Species Name: Pristimantis bambu Described by: Arteaga-Navarro & Guayasamin, 2011 The proccess of describing this species took two years since the specimen was first collected.	Photo Credit: Alejandro Arteaga Species Name: Microlophus indefatigabilis Described by: Benavides, Baum, Snell & Snell, 2009 This species found on the Galapagos Islands was designated as a new species based on DNA analysis. It could have arrived on the island some two million years ago.
Photo Credit: Alejandro Arteaga Species Name: Enyalioides laticeps Described by: Guichenot, 1855 This species was originally described in 1855, but has been re-identified multiple times and thus has multiple names. In taxonomy, this phenomenon is called synonymy, which is a considerable problem with multiple causes and hard to control as it requires major revisions of all known species.	Photo Credit: Alejandro Arteaga Species Name: Dipsas catesbyi Described by: Sentzen, 1796 A species with up to 10 synonyms.	Photo Credit: Paulo Canorus Species Name: Neofelis diardi Described by: World Wildlife Fund, 2007 Genetic research results clearly indicate that the clouded leopard of Borneo should be considered a separate species.
Photo Credit: Zina Deretsky Species Name: Lophocebus kipunji Described by: Ehardt et al. 2005	Photo Credit: Blair Hedges Species Name: Leptotyphlops carlae Described by: Hedges, 2008 This species is the smallest snake species currently known to exist.	Photo Credit: Blair Hedges Species Name: Sphaerodactylus ariasae Described by: Hedges & Thomas, 2001 Here is one of the two smallest reptile species known to exist.
Photo Credit: Jeremy Miller Species Name: Eriauchenius ambre Described by: Wood 2008 This species from the family Archaeidae was discovered along with nine other new species of spiders in Madagascar. The species are characterized by their unusually long necks and jaws and that they eat other spiders.	Photo Credit: Gaetan Borgonie Species Name: Halicephalobus mephisto Described by: Borgonie, García-Moyano, Litthauer, Bert, Bester, van Heerden, Möller, Erasmus & Onstott, 2011 This species was found in the deep subsurface biosphere, over three kilometers into the Earth’s crust. Its discovery challenged the paradigm that this harsh environment was unique to single-cell organisms and had important implications for the search for subsurface life on other planets in our Solar System.	Photo Credit: Franco Folini Species Name: Harpaphe haydeniana Described by: Wood, 1864
Photo Credit: Eric Guinther Species Name: Scolopendra sp	Photo Credit: Gaetan Borgonie Species Name: Polyarthra	Photo Credit: Steve Childs Species Name: Pycnogonid sp.
Photo Credit: Marsh Youngbluth Species Name: Bathocyroe fosteri Described by: Madin & Harbison, 1978	Photo Credit: Derek Siveter Species Name: Galeaplumosus abilus Described by: Hou, Aldridge, Siveter, Williams, Zalasiewicz & Ma, 2011 This new species hemichordate is a fossil that lived on Earth some 525 million years ago.	Photo Credit: Antonina Rogacheva Species Name: Elpidia belyaevi Described by: Rogacheva, 2007 This is a new species of sea cucumber from the Arctic deep sea.

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Research into the interlinks between biodiversity patterns, processes, threats, conservation and human welfare