eight billion Many living species have existed in the human world from past to present. We have lived and continue to live on the same planet with countless living species, from plants to bacteria.

It is our natural right to wonder who we live with on our planet, which is flat at the poles and swollen at the equator. In this content so far how many animal species We’ll see if it exists.

Earth is the third closest planet to the sun.

4.6 billion years ago the sun was surrounded by dust and rocks. this is big dust and rock fragments, They started colliding with each other, merging and growing even bigger. Then a big one lava ball-like took a shape.

In the next process it gets lava ball-like shape meteors strike and thereby some water They were bringing it. Volcanic mountains, the formation of oxygen, the Rodinia continent and the formation of the ozone layer. 375 million years ago Life begins on earth. Our content explaining the formation of the Earth in more detail can be found here:

Initially, with the formation of mossy plants, it passed from aquatic life to terrestrial life. vertebrate creatures showed themselves.

As scientists begin to analyze our DNA, we begin to learn more about living species.

To better investigate the existence of living things and obtain clear data, we must first We need to tackle DNA. After two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, we learned that humans have one DNA molecule consisting of roughly 3 billion base pairs. About 3 billion letters of information are encoded in humans’ DNA, and only a certain number of them are known to be fully functional.

After this DNA discovery, dealing with animal species becomes relatively easier. Although new species such as new species of whales, monkeys and deer have continued to appear in the literature in recent years, Discovering new animal species and naming them continues.

Now let’s get to the main question. How many animal species have emerged since that period?

According to the IUCN Red List (International Union for Conservation of Nature) By 2022 approximately 2.16 million The animal species was officially registered. According to an article published in the journal Science, animal species have been recorded about 20% It is said to have been documented by several scientists. So the number of existing known animal species decreases slightly. You can access the article here.

Assuming these documents are accurate, the number of known animal species drops to about 1.7 million. Of course, these data are not absolute, because every year approximately 14,000 Unpleasant 18,000 New animal species ranging from to are documented. This shows that we are only looking at the tip of the iceberg.

Other data obtained shows that half of the animal species are insects!

Camilo Mora, a biogeographer at the University of Hawaii, and his colleagues found cells with a single nucleus, i.e. eukaryotes They published an article with estimated figures. According to this article, the total number of living things was about 8.7 million, and almost half of them were insects.

But this information does not seem to be enough. Because the data obtained and the estimated number of animal species do not correspond well. That’s why it was included looking at fossils It is necessary to obtain more comprehensive data.

Organisms emerged long after the formation of the Earth, 4.6 billion years ago.

These organisms were very simple cells. It took about 1.4 billion years for multicellular life to emerge 800 million years ago animals began to evolve. Very few of these early animals have survived.

Since it was not possible to preserve soft-bodied species, fossils of these species were not possible. special conditions It is needed. Just like plants become oil by waiting underground.

We’ve covered a lot of information so far and we’re getting closer to a clearer conclusion. Now let’s do a calculation.

Our planet is home to approximately 8 billion people. These 8 billion people are approx 130 million mammals, 428 billion birds, 3.5 trillion fish And 10 trillion insects It shares the same nature with.

Now let’s assume that living species multiply steadily, and we already have current animal species Let’s make a calculation based on the number.

For example now on earth 3.85 million insect species if present; This corresponds to 385 million species of insects in the past. this too 3.85×10^27 It means insect. If we include other invertebrates, vertebrates and arthropods, approx 4.5×10^27 It can be said that the animal has been found.

We have calculated it, but why did we put so much effort into finding out the number of animal species that ever existed?

Learning about animal species that have existed for billions of years and still exist, biodiversity and it is important for us to learn how this diversity takes shape.

What’s behind climate change, environmental pollution, global warming and many other global problems, and what could even happen? It is necessary to provide.