@article{Nemys:SourceID:165610, abstract = {Background
The question of how many marine species exist is important because it provides a metric for how much we do and do not know about life in the oceans. We have compiled the first register of the marine species of the world and used this baseline to estimate how many more species, partitioned among all major eukaryotic groups, may be discovered.

Results
There are ~226,000 eukaryotic marine species described. More species were described in the past decade (~20,000) than in any previous one. The number of authors describing new species has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of new species described in the past six decades. We report that there are ~170,000 synonyms, that 58,000–72,000 species are collected but not yet described, and that 482,000–741,000 more species have yet to be sampled. Molecular methods may add tens of thousands of cryptic species. Thus, there may be 0.7–1.0 million marine species. Past rates of description of new species indicate there may be 0.5 ± 0.2 million marine species. On average 37% (median 31%) of species in over 100 recent field studies around the world might be new to science.

Conclusions
Currently, between one-third and two-thirds of marine species may be undescribed, and previous estimates of there being well over one million marine species appear highly unlikely. More species than ever before are being described annually by an increasing number of authors. If the current trend continues, most species will be discovered this century.}, author = {Appeltans, W. and Ahyong, S. and Anderson, G. and Angel, M. and Artois, T. and Bailly, N. and Bamber, R. and Barber, A. and Bartsch, I. and Berta, A. and Błażewicz-Paszkowycz, M. and Bock, P. and Boxshall, G. and Boyko, C. and Brandão, S. and Bray, R. and Bruce, N. and Cairns, S. and Chan, T.-Y. and Cheng, L. and Collins, A. and Cribb, T. and Curini-Galletti, M. and Dahdouh-Guebas, F. and Davie, P. and Dawson, M. and De Clerck, O. and Decock, W. and De Grave, S. and De Voogd, N. and Domning, D. and Emig, C. and Erséus, C. and Eschmeyer, W. and Fauchald, K. and Fautin, D. and Feist, S. and Fransen, C. and Furuya, H. and Garcia-Alvarez, O. and Gerken, S. and Gibson, D. and Gittenberger, A. and Gofas, S. and Gómez-Daglio, L. and Gordon, D. and Guiry, M. and Hernandez, F. and Hoeksema, B. and Hopcroft, R. and Jaume, D. and Kirk, P. and Koedam, N. and Koenemann, S. and Kolb, J. and Kristensen, R. and Kroh, A. and Lambert, G. and Lazarus, D. and Lemaitre, R. and Longshaw, M. and Lowry, J. and Macpherson, E. and Madin, L. and Mah, C. and Mapstone, G. and McLaughlin, P. and Mees, J. and Meland, K. and Messing, C. and Mills, C. and Molodtsova, T. and Mooi, R. and Neuhaus, B. and Ng, P. and Nielsen, C. and Norenburg, J. and Opresko, D. and Osawa, M. and Paulay, G. and Perrin, W. and Pilger, J. and Poore, G. and Pugh, P. and Read, G. and Reimer, J. and Rius, M. and Rocha, R. and Saiz-Salinas, J. and Scarabino, V. and Schierwater, B. and Schmidt-Rhaesa, A. and Schnabel, K. and Schotte, M. and Schuchert, P. and Schwabe, E. and Segers, H. and Self-Sullivan, C. and Shenkar, N. and Siegel, V. and Sterrer, W. and Stöhr, S. and Swalla, B. and Tasker, M. and Thuesen, E. and Timm, T. and Todaro, M. and Turon, X. and Tyler, S. and Uetz, P. and Van der Land, J. and Vanhoorne, B. and Van Ofwegen, L. and Van Soest, R. and Vanaverbeke, J. and Walker-Smith, G. and Walter, T. and Warren, A. and Williams, G. and Wilson, S. and Costello, M.}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.036}, journal = {Current Biology}, issue = {23}, pages = {2189-2202}, title = {The Magnitude of Global Marine Species Diversity}, url = {https://www.nemys.ugent.be/aphia.php?p=sourcedetails&id=165610}, volume = {22}, year = {2012} }