Over the past eight years, scientists specializing in taxonomy have been reviewing the entries in all existing databases relating to ocean life with the aim of compiling one super-definitive list. The task is now complete and the super database is known as the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). The previous lists represented two and a half centuries to ocean dwelling creatures.
However the end result contains far fewer entries than the sum of all of the previously existing lists of marine life would suggest. The combined number of species across the different databases totaled 419,000 names, However, the exercise has expunged nearly half (190,400) and these have not ended up in the WoRMS list. This is because these entries were shown to be duplicates.
Repetition not only extended to the same species being named twice; in some cases multiple repeats occurred, with one species of sea snail having 113 separate names.
The end result is that the WoRMS editors have whittled down the number of species known to science to 228,450. Of these, the overwhelming majority (86 percent or about 195,000 species) are animals. the numerically greatest are fish, with 18,000 species. Following fish, there are 8,900 clams and other bivalves. Next in order are sea stars, at 1,800. There are also 816 squids and 93 whales and dolphins.
The compilation of WoRMS does not represent the end of the process of describing oceanic life. According to the BBC, it is estimated that another 10,000 or more new species are held in laboratories around the world waiting to be described and indexed.
The project will also result in a book, examining part of the database, called Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean.
