Earth may be home to one trillion species: Largest-ever analysis of microbial data reveals an ecological law concluding 99.999 percent of species remain undiscovered

Earth could contain nearly 1 trillion species, with only one-thousandth of 1 percent now identified, according to a study from biologists at Indiana University. The estimate, based on the intersection of large datasets and universal scaling laws, appears May 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study's authors are Jay T. Lennon, associate professor...

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