Census of Marine Life reveals extent of ocean mystery
The first global picture of life in the oceans is released today, with the completion of the decade-long Census of Marine Life. But despite its 2700 scientists spending over 9000 days at sea, the Census has only scratched the surface of the ocean's biodiversity. In all, some 250,000 marine plant and animal species have now been formally described, out of the 1 million thought to exist. "There are three to four unknown species for every known," says Paul Snelgrove of Memorial University of Newfoundland in St John's, Canada.
The Census has so far added 1200 new species to the tally, though that is likely to rise as over 5000 more organisms that were collected have yet to be studied or named. The new species include several that were thought to have disappearedMovie Camera, such as the "Jurassic shrimp", which was believed to have died out 50 million years ago. (...)
The article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19535-census-of-marine-life-reveals-extent-of-ocean-mystery.html
More about:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8038816/Oceans-could-contain-750000-undiscovered-species.html
http://www.repubblica.it/ambiente/2010/10/05/foto/pesci-7733829/1/
http://www.greenreport.it/_new/index.php?page=default&id=%206970
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/1005-coml_final.html
http://www.ilcambiamento.it/acque/census_marine_life_biodiversita_oceani.html
Results from the First Census of Marine Life:
http://www.coml.org/
http://www.coml.org/pressreleases/census2010/PDF/English--Census%20Summary.pdf
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