How many animals have ever existed on Earth?

[admin]

To figure out this mind-bogglingly high number, we need to know how many species have ever lived, dig deep into the fossil record and do a lot of math.

How many animals have ever existed on Earth? : Read more

 

[AdamD]

Nice article. Extremely difficult to estimate.

One thing : 7.7 million is not what's left if 99.9% of 770 million went extinct.

You'd have to start with 7700 million to be left with 7.7 million.

 

[boombar]

cats are animals right ?
they are so cute

View: https://youtu.be/rf2AkUbs74I

 

[Broadlands]

"Of course, this number isn't static. Researchers are continuing to describe about 14,000 to 18,000 new animal species each year, which means scientists have only scratched the surface of the number of animals on the planet."

That certainly makes a mockery of those who insist we are in the midst of another mass extinction and a climate emergency.

 

[GregMP]

I noticed also that the following quotation from the article contains the error of multiplication by 100 percent.
"..we would simply need to multiply 7.7 million by nearly 100 percent, Mora said. That puts the total number of animal species at roughly 770 million species."
Really, 7.7 million multiplied by 100 percent is 7.7 million. It should say 7.7 million multiplied 100 times, or 7.7 million multiplied by 100. One hundred percent of any number is the original number.