Collection of species on the internet

2003/01/10 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia
• Internet

Several scientists are planning to collect and put on the Internet data of all Earth species in the next 25 years. As the genomes of known species are decoded and new species discovered, they will feed the database and the aim is to make them available to anyone.

While it is a great project, the advancement of the Internet and DNA sequencing technology allows the project to be carried out.

At the moment about 1.7 million species are known, but it is estimated that there are between 10 and 100 million species. Annually, 10,000 unknown species are described to date. Therefore, if the current rhythm is maintained, it would take about 500 years to meet them.

Yes, as new species are discovered, many others disappear. In fact, species are lost a thousand times faster than in the last 600 million years, and they believe that this rate of loss will be ten times in the next century.