Page 28 - The Error of the Evolution of Species

The Error of the Evolution
of Species

While the number of species currently described is on the
order of 1.4 million, the big question is how many species
are there totally? Current estimates of the total number of
species run from 10-100 million. 6

In a paper, Professor Quentin Wheeler of Natural History
Museum, London and Professor Joel Cracraft of the

American Museum of Natural History submitted their own
estimate of biodiversity:
Despite having accumulated significant knowledge about
the world's species over the past 2 centuries, we still cannot
provide accurate answers to the simplest of all questions
about biodiversity. How many species are there? Estimates
vary from 3 to 100 million species. 7

Taylor Ricketts of Stanford University says that: "The
Earth is home to over 1.7 million known species, and prob-
ably 10 times that number have yet to be discovered." 8

Alessandro Minelli from the University of Padua states
that "Global estimates of existing biodiversity are thus quite
uncertain. Figures ranging from 5 to 130 million species
have been recently offered for the gross total." 9
According to The Encarta Encyclopedia, the identified
and named species number 1.75 million, and some scientists
estimate the total number of species on Earth to be around

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