SpeciesFacts.html

Number of plant and animal species that have been identified and given scientific names: 1,400,000

Millions of plant and animal species that scientists believe exiest of Earth: 5 to 30

Percentage of all species that are larger than a bumblebee: 1

Portion of species that are insects or other invertebrates: three-quarters

Percentage of Earth's plants and animals believed to live in tropical rain forests: 50

How many more fish species have been identified in the Amazon River system than in the Mississippi River system: 1,750

Number of ant species that one biologist found in a single tree in Peru: 43

Number of ant species found in the entire British Isles:43

Number of insect and mite species that live in the fur of a single sloth in Panama: 12

Number of beetle species that live on sloths:978

Number of wasp species needed to pollinate the world's 900 fig species: 900

Number of wasp species that pollinate each kind of fig: 1

Percentage of Earth's species that could be extinct by the mid-twenty-first century if current deforestation rates continue: 25

Conservatively estimated number of species that are becoming extinct in the tropics each day: 50 to 150

Millions of years that have passed since species extinction rates-based then on natural causes-were as high as they are now: 65

Miller and Tangley, xv-xxi

Stephanie Heller
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