Top 10 new species 2014

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Ha, great bunch. Thanks.

I wonder how many undiscovered species there are in the average Australian back yard.

We have leaf tailed geckos at the zoo. Have had them for years. Cute little critters.

Estimates of the number of undescribed species are in the range from 2 million to 4 million.

People’s backyards might not be the most biodiverse places on earth but still, could be thousands.

Of course, these will mostly be small insects, not cute mammals or freakish trees.

> Estimates of the number of undescribed species are in the range from 2 million to 4 million.

No. Too low.

See the “Status of the Microbial Census” for example. 35,498 microbial species have been described, but estimates of the total number of microbial species range from 10,000,000 to 1,000,000,000.

The Census of Marine Life in 2010 discovered far fewer new species than expected, only about 1,200.