Australian Biological Resources Study

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Numbers of Living Species in Australia and the World

A.D.Chapman
Australian Biodiversity Information Services, Toowoomba, Australia
A Report for the Department of the Environment and Heritage, September 2005
ISBN (printed) 978 0 642 56849 6
ISBN (online) 978 0 642 56850 2
Online html version with updates (April 2007)

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Footnotes

Introduction

1. http://www.gbif.org.
2. http://www.species2000.org.
3. http://www.itis.usda.gov/.
4. http://www.ipni.org.
5. http://www.chah.gov.au/avh/.
6. http://www.ozcam.gov.au/about.php.

Executive Summary

7. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
8. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005).
9. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
10. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005).
11. See comments under Insecta discussion.
12. Ponder pers. comm. 2006 suggested most if not all species could be endemic.
13. As mentioned in the Introduction the list of Australian threatened species have been derived from the national list and not from State or regional lists.
14. This figure is a midpoint between estimates of 200 000 to 300 000.
15. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
16. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005). NB This figure includes about 88 undescribed species; and excludes infraspecific taxa.
17. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
18. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005).
19. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
20. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005). Does not include infraspecific or undescribed taxa.

Detailed discussion by Group

Vertebrates

Mammalia (mammals)

21. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
22. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Aves (birds)

23. Birdlife International http://www.birdlife.net/action/science/species/index.html.
24. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Reptilia (reptiles)

25. EMBL Reptile Database (Aug. 2005) – http://www.embl-heidelberg.de/~uetz/.
26. Pers. comm., Peter Uertz, Coordinator, EMBL Reptile Database, 9 Aug. 2005.
27. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
28. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Amphibia (frogs etc.)

29. In 1985 there were 4 000 named species of amphibians. As of today we know of 5 802 valid species and the number grows weekly. There is no sense that the rate of description of new species is decreasing. It is hard to believe that a growth rate of about 3% per year will be sustained but at this point we do not know when it will start slowing. For example, we know that more than 50 new species will soon be described from Sri Lanka and many Madagascar species remain to be described. About 25 salamanders are known but so far undescribed from Middle America. There are still species described nearly every year from the United States. My ‘educated guess’ is that there are about 7 500 species of amphibians in the world if we continue to use current criteria (David B. Wake, pers. com. 2005).
30. Pers. comm. Alice Wells, ABRS, 16 June 2005.
31. Pers. comm. Alice Wells, ABRS, 26 July 2005.
32. AmphibiaWeb (14 June 2005). http://www.amphibiaweb.org/.
33. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
34. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Pisces (fishes including Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes)

35. Pers. comm. Bill Eschmeyer, Catalogue of Fishes, California Academy of Sciences, 22 Aug. 2005.
36. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
37. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Agnatha (hagfish, lampreys and slime eels)

38. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
39. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Cephalochordata (lancelets)

40. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
41. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Tunicata or Urochordata (sea squirts, doliodids, salps)

42. http://www.earthlife.net/inverts/thaliacea.html.
43. http://www.meer.org/M20.htm.
44. Pers. comm. Alice Wells, ABRS, 16 June 2005.
45. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
46. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Invertebrates

Hemichordata (hemichordates)

47. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
48. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Echinodermata (starfish)

49. http://www.deh.gov.au/cgi-bin/abrs/fauna/details.pl?pstrVol=ECHINODERMATA;pstrTaxa=1;pstrChecklistMode=1.
50. ‘We have seen only a tiny fraction of the abyss, and then, usually only the very top layers. Cryptic forms have remained, by and large, inaccessible for the vast majority of bottom-typing imagery and even dredging. Ground-truthing these studies is fraught with difficulty and expense. However, we do know one thing — virtually every time we look carefully, something new crops up. Now imagine if we could do the same type of molecular work on deep sea forms as we have done for those easily accessed shallow-water forms.
    
    Another observation: many of the new species in some groups come out of historical collections in which unrecognized forms have lain for many years. I just recently found 4 new species among about 300 specimens from worldwide collections of a single genus without ever getting my feet wet–thereby doubling the number of taxa in that particular genus. So discovery is of course not necessarily going out there and finding something in the wild in every case–it depends on the level of acumen by researchers more than anything else, in my opinion. If the same level of acumen and interest is brought to every group, would that turn up the same thing? Should we be doubling all our present estimates? …. Extrapolating from that alone, clearly we should be at least doubling our estimates for some groups. But the question remains, which ones?’ (pers. comm. Rich Mooi, California Academy of Sciences, 17 June 2005).
51. Pers. comm. Rich Mooi, California Academy of Sciences, 17 June 2005.
52. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
53. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).
54. Pers. comm. Christian Thompson, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC (September 2006).

Insecta (insects)

55. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
56. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Arachnida (spiders, scorpions, etc.)

57. As of 2000 - Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palpigradi.
58. As of 2000 - Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscorpionida.
59. As of 2000 - Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizomid.
60. Museum of Cape Town, South Africa http://www.museums.org.za/bio/scorpions/.
61. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
62. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Myriapoda (millipedes and centipedes)

63. http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/InfoNed/The_spider.html.
64. http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/InfoNed/The_spider.html.
65. http://www.gbif.org/Stories/STORY1103211930/#Project_Coordinator:_Alessandro_Minelli.
66. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
67. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Crustacea (crabs, lobsters)

68. Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia (2005). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crustacean.
69. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
70. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Onychophora (velvet worms)

71. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/onychoph/onychophora.html.
72. http://www.peripatus.gen.nz/Taxa/Arthropoda/Onychophora.html.
73. W.Ponder pers. comm. 2006 suggested most if not all species could be endemic.
74. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
75. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Mollusca (molluscs, shellfish)

76. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
77. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a). As mentioned in the Introduction the list of Australian threatened species have been derived from the national list and not from State or regional lists.

Annelida (segmented worms)

78. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
79. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Nematoda (nematodes, roundworms)

80. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
81. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Acanthocephala (thorny-headed worms)

82. http://www.biology.missouri.edu/courses/Bio10/Acanthocephala.html.
83. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
84. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Platyhelminthes (flat worms)

85. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
86. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Cnidaria (jellyfish, sea anenomes, and corals)

87. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
88. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Porifera (sponges)

89. http://www.biology.iastate.edu/Courses/201L/Porif/%20Porifindx.htm.
90. http://www.earthlife.net/inverts/porifera.html.
91. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
92. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005a).

Other Invertebrates

93. Pers. comm. Reinhardt Kristensen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 8 Aug. 2005.
94. Brusca and Brusca (2003) treat the Placozoa, Monoblastoza, Rhomobozoa and Orthonectida as phyla of uncertain relationships.
95. Of doubtful existence (Meeûs and Renaud 2002).
96. Split into 70 Rhombozoa and 20 Orthonectida.
97. Pers. comm. Reinhardt Kristensen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 8 Aug. 2005.
98. 87% endemic to Australian and New Zealand waters (Ponder et al. 2002).
99. Appears to be a very high number – see comments under ‘Accepted’.
100. Pers. comm. Reinhardt Kristensen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 8 Aug. 2005 – two species from Australian caves, and two species from waters between Australia and New Caledonia.
101. Figures unless indicated from Sandra Claxton, pers. comm. See comments on previous page.
102. Guidetti and Bertolani (2005) list 980 species of which 147 are marine.
103. Included under Crustacea.
104. Hickman et al. (2002) state that this phylum is not supported by molecular evidence.

Plants

Bryophyta (mosses, liverworts and hornworts)

105. Pers. comm. Christine Cargill, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Canberra, Sept. 2005.
106. Pers. comm. Patrick McCarthy, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, Sept. 2005.
107. Pers. comm. Neils Klazenga, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne via Christine Cargill, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Canberra.
108. Pers. comm. Neils Klazenga, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne via Christine Cargill, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Canberra.
109. Pers. comm. Patrick McCarthy, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, Sept. 2005.
110. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
111. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005b).

Ferns and Allies

112. Pers. comm. Peter Bostock, Queensland Herbarium, June 2005.
113. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
114. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005b).

Gymnosperms (Coniferophyta, Cycadophyta, Gnetophyta and Gingkophyta)

115. http://www.science.siu.edu/landplants/Coniferophyta/coniferophyta.taxa.html.
116. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
117. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005b).

Magnoliophyta (flowering plants)

118. NB. These figures do not take into account introduced and naturalised species which would drop the figure down to about 82%.
119. Includes 280 undescribed species, but which have been given either manuscript or formulae names.
120. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
121. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005b). NB This figure includes about 95 undescribed species; and excludes infraspecific taxa.

Others

Lichens

122. http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/microbes/lichen.htm.
123. http://www.bcbiodiversity.homestead.com/lichens.html.
124. http://www.casebio.com/lichens/whatarelichens.htm.
125. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).

Fungi (excluding lichens)

126. Pers. comm. Paul Kirk, CABI UK, March 2007.
127. Pers. comm. Tom May, National Herbarium of Victoria, June 2005.
128. Based on an assumption that there are at least ten times as many fungi as vascular plants and that we know less than 5% of these fungi. It is difficult to estimate the number of microfungi in Australia, as there is no complete checklist of Australian microfungi (ACIL Consulting 2002).

Bacteria (Monera) (excluding Cyanobacteria)

129. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).

Cyanophyta (Cyanobacteria)

130. Pers. comm. Tim Entwisle, Botanic Gardens Trust, NSW, March 2006.
131. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
132. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005b).

Algae (excluding Cyanobacteria)

133. Pers. comm. Michael Guiry, AlgaeBASE, June 2005. http://www.algaebase.org.
134. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).
135. Includes listed Extinct and Vulnerable species (DEH 2005).

Viruses

136. 2004 (IUCN Red Data List).

Protoctista (mainly Protozoa—others included under fungi, algae, etc.)

137. Included as a Protist by many researchers.