Number of Species on Earth
According to the latest counts, scientists have described over 1.5 million species of animals, plants and algae. The list below gives the total number of known species in the world for each major category.
The greatest diversity exists among insects, which account for nearly a million of the planet's species. Mammals make up one of the smallest groups, with just 5,416 members. Altogether the earth's oceans and continents support close to 60,000 species of vertebrate animals and 300,000 species of plants.
| Category | Species | Totals |
|---|---|---|
| Vertebrate Animals | ||
| Mammals | 5,416 | |
| Birds | 9,956 | |
| Reptiles | 8,240 | |
| Amphibians | 6,199 | |
| Total Vertebrates | 59,811 | |
| Invertebrate Animals | ||
| Insects | 950,000 | |
| Molluscs | 81,000 | |
| Crustaceans | 40,000 | |
| Corals | 2,175 | |
| Others | 130,200 | |
| Total Invertebrates | 1,203,375 | |
| Plants | ||
| Flowering plants (angiosperms) | 258,650 | |
| Conifers (gymnosperms) | 980 | |
| Ferns and horsetails | 13,025 | |
| Mosses | 15,000 | |
| Red and green algae | 9,671 | |
| Total Plants | 297,326 | |
| Others | ||
| Lichens | 10,000 | |
| Mushrooms | 16,000 | |
| Brown algae | 2,849 | |
| Total Others | 28,849 | |
| TOTAL SPECIES | 1,589,361 |
Reference
The World Conservation Union. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Summary Statistics for Globally Threatened Species. Table 1: Numbers of threatened species by major groups of organisms (1996–2007).
