Listing all species on earth 'a possibility'

We've already found more than a million species, but unearthing the rest was thought to be an impossible task.

But now it seems an army of amateur scientists have taken up the cause. A new study concludes that, thanks to them, we're in a golden age of discovery, with 20,000 new finds charted each year.

There could also be far fewer plants and animals left for them to find. The researchers say rather than tens of millions of species living on Earth, there could be between two and eight million.

If the appetite for discovery continues to grow, they say a full ecological audit could be a possibility within the next 100 years.

The scientists also looked at...

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Scientists are trying to count the number of species on Earth. Thousands of new species are discovered every year. And, the number of species disappearing may be lower than expected.