Lists of organisms by population
This is a collection of lists of organisms by their population. While most of the numbers are estimates, they have been made by the experts in their fields. Species population is a science falling under the purview of population biogeography. Individuals are counted by census. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. According to another study, the number of described species has been estimated at 1,899,587. 2000–2009 saw 17,000 species described per year. The total number of undescribed organisms is unknown, but marine microbial species alone could number 20,000,000; the number of quantified species will ipso facto always lag behind the number of described species, species contained in these lists tend to be on the K side of the r/K selection continuum.
More in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth with only one-thousandth of one percent described. The total number of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all organisms living on Earth, it is estimated that the most numerous bacteria are of a species of the Pelagibacterales clade Pelagibacter ubique, the most numerous viruses are bacteriophages infecting these species. It is estimated; the Deep Carbon Observatory has been exploring living forms in the interior of the Earth. "Life in deep Earth totals 15 to 23 billion tons of carbon". Mammals by population Artiodactyla Carnivora Cetacea Chiroptera Perissodactyla Primates Birds by population Anseriformes Apodiformes Caprimulgiformes Charadriiformes Ciconiiformes Columbiformes Coraciiformes Cuculiformes Falconiformes Galliformes Gaviiformes Gruiformes Passeriformes Pelecaniformes Phoenicopteriformes Piciformes Podicipediformes Procellariiformes Psittaciformes Sphenisciformes Strigiformes Struthioniformes Tinamiformes Trogoniformes There are an estimated 3,500,000,000,000 fish in the ocean.
In the last 100 years, the number of small fish – such as pilchards, anchovies and sardines – has more than doubled. It is caused by a major decline in big ‘predator fish’ such as sharks and cod due to over-fishing. Recent figures indicate that there are more than 1.4 billion insects for each human on the planet An article in The New York Times claimed that the world holds 300 pounds of insects for every pound of humans. Ants have colonised every landmass on Earth, their population is estimated as 1016–1017. According to NASA in 2005, there were over 400 billion trees on our globe. However, more in 2015, using better methods, the global tree count has been estimated at about 3 trillion. Other studies show that the Amazonian forest alone yields 430 billion trees. Extrapolations from data compiled over a period of 10 years suggest that greater Amazonia, which includes the Amazon Basin and the Guiana Shield, harbors around 390 billion individual trees
Extinct in the wild
A species, extinct in the wild is one, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as known only by living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized population outside its historic range due to massive habitat loss. Examples of species and subspecies that are extinct in the wild include: Alagoas curassow Beloribitsa Black soft-shell turtle Cachorrito de charco palmal Escarpment cycad Franklinia Golden skiffia Guam kingfisher Guam rail Hawaiian crow or ʻalalā Kihansi spray toad Oahu deceptor bush cricket Pedder galaxias Père David's deer Scimitar oryx Socorro dove Socorro isopod South China tiger Spix's macaw Wyoming toad The Pinta Island tortoise had only one living individual, named Lonesome George, until his death in June 2012; the tortoise was believed to be extinct in the mid-20th century, until Hungarian malacologist József Vágvölgyi spotted Lonesome George on the Galapagos island of Pinta on 1 December 1971. Since Lonesome George has been a powerful symbol for conservation efforts in general and for the Galapagos Islands in particular.
With his death on 24 June 2012, the subspecies is again believed to be extinct. With the discovery of 17 hybrid Pinta tortoises located at nearby Wolf Volcano a plan has been made to attempt to breed the subspecies back into a pure state. Not all species that are extinct in the wild are rare. For example, Ameca splendens, though extinct in the wild, was a popular fish among aquarists for some time, but hobbyist stocks have declined quite a lot more placing its survival in jeopardy. However, the ultimate purpose of preserving biodiversity is to maintain ecological function; when a species exists only in captivity, it is ecologically extinct. Reintroduction is the deliberate release of species into the wild, from captivity or relocated from other areas where the species survives; this may be an option for certain species that are extinct in the wild. However, it may be difficult to reintroduce EW species into the wild if their natural habitats were restored, because survival techniques, which are passed from parents to offspring during parenting, may be lost.
While conservation efforts may preserve some of the genetics of a species, the species may never recover due to the loss of the natural memetics of the species. An example of a successful reintroduction of an EW species is Przewalski's horse, which as of 2018 is considered to be an Endangered species, following reintroduction started in the 1990s. IUCN Red List extinct in the wild species for a list by taxonomy Category:IUCN Red List extinct in the wild species for an alphabetical list Extinction List of Extinct in the Wild species as identified by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, field projects and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable". Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to sustainable development in its projects. Unlike many other international environmental organisations, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation, it tries to influence the actions of governments and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, through building partnerships. The organization is best known to the wider public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses the conservation status of species worldwide.
IUCN has a membership of over 1400 non-governmental organizations. Some 16,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis, it employs 1000 full-time staff in more than 50 countries. Its headquarters are in Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, plays a role in the implementation of several international conventions on nature conservation and biodiversity, it was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. In the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its closer relations with the business sector have caused controversy. IUCN was established in 1948, it was called the International Union for the Protection of Nature and the World Conservation Union. Establishment IUCN was established on 5 October 1948, in Fontainebleau, when representatives of governments and conservation organizations signed a formal act constituting the International Union for the Protection of Nature.
The initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. The objectives of the new Union were to encourage international cooperation in the protection of nature, to promote national and international action and to compile and distribute information. At the time of its founding IUPN was the only international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years: 1948–1956 IUPN started out with 65 members, its secretariat was located in Brussels. Its first work program focused on saving species and habitats and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid scientific base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were associated, they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of gravely endangered species was drawn up for the first time, a precursor of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
In the early years of its existence IUCN depended entirely on UNESCO funding and was forced to temporarily scale down activities when this ended unexpectedly in 1954. IUPN was successful in engaging prominent scientists and identifying important issues such as the harmful effects of pesticides on wildlife but not many of the ideas it developed were turned into action; this was caused by unwillingness to act on the part of governments, uncertainty about the IUPN mandate and lack of resources. In 1956, IUPN changed its name to International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Increased profile and recognition: 1956–1965 In the 1950s and 1960s Europe entered a period of economic growth and formal colonies became independent. Both developments had impact on the work of IUCN. Through the voluntary involvement of experts in its Commissions IUCN was able to get a lot of work done while still operating on a low budget, it established links with the Council of Europe. In 1961, at the request of United Nations Economic and Social Council, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, IUCN published the first global list of national parks and protected areas which it has updated since.
IUCN's best known publication, the Red Data Book on the conservation status of species, was first published in 1964. IUCN began to play a part in the development of international treaties and conventions, starting with the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Environmental law and policy making became a new area of expertise. Africa was the focus of many of the early IUCN conservation field projects. IUCN supported the ‘Yellowstone model’ of protected area management, which restricted human presence and activity in order to protect nature. IUCN and other conservation organisations were criticized for protecting nature against people rather than with people; this model was also applied in Africa and played a role in the decision to remove the Maasai people from Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. To establish a stable financial basis for its work, IUCN participated in setting up the World Wildlife Fund
Human
Humans are the only extant members of the subtribe Hominina. Together with chimpanzees and orangutans, they are part of the family Hominidae. A terrestrial animal, humans are characterized by their erect bipedal locomotion. Early hominins—particularly the australopithecines, whose brains and anatomy are in many ways more similar to ancestral non-human apes—are less referred to as "human" than hominins of the genus Homo. Several of these hominins used fire, occupied much of Eurasia, gave rise to anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Africa about 315,000 years ago. Humans began to exhibit evidence of behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago, in several waves of migration, they ventured out of Africa and populated most of the world; the spread of the large and increasing population of humans has profoundly affected much of the biosphere and millions of species worldwide. Advantages that explain this evolutionary success include a larger brain with a well-developed neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes, which enable advanced abstract reasoning, problem solving and culture through social learning.
Humans use tools better than any other animal. Humans uniquely use such systems of symbolic communication as language and art to express themselves and exchange ideas, organize themselves into purposeful groups. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to political states. Social interactions between humans have established an wide variety of values, social norms, rituals, which together undergird human society. Curiosity and the human desire to understand and influence the environment and to explain and manipulate phenomena have motivated humanity's development of science, mythology, religion and numerous other fields of knowledge. Though most of human existence has been sustained by hunting and gathering in band societies many human societies transitioned to sedentary agriculture some 10,000 years ago, domesticating plants and animals, thus enabling the growth of civilization; these human societies subsequently expanded, establishing various forms of government and culture around the world, unifying people within regions to form states and empires.
The rapid advancement of scientific and medical understanding in the 19th and 20th centuries permitted the development of fuel-driven technologies and increased lifespans, causing the human population to rise exponentially. The global human population was estimated to be near 7.7 billion in 2015. In common usage, the word "human" refers to the only extant species of the genus Homo—anatomically and behaviorally modern Homo sapiens. In scientific terms, the meanings of "hominid" and "hominin" have changed during the recent decades with advances in the discovery and study of the fossil ancestors of modern humans; the clear boundary between humans and apes has blurred, resulting in now acknowledging the hominids as encompassing multiple species, Homo and close relatives since the split from chimpanzees as the only hominins. There is a distinction between anatomically modern humans and Archaic Homo sapiens, the earliest fossil members of the species; the English adjective human is a Middle English loanword from Old French humain from Latin hūmānus, the adjective form of homō "man."
The word's use as a noun dates to the 16th century. The native English term man can refer to the species as well as to human males, or individuals of either sex; the species binomial "Homo sapiens" was coined by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. The generic name "Homo" is a learned 18th-century derivation from Latin homō "man," "earthly being"; the species-name "sapiens" means "wise" or "sapient". Note that the Latin word homo refers to humans of either gender, that "sapiens" is the singular form; the genus Homo evolved and diverged from other hominins in Africa, after the human clade split from the chimpanzee lineage of the hominids branch of the primates. Modern humans, defined as the species Homo sapiens or to the single extant subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Eurasia 125,000–60,000 years ago, Australia around 40,000 years ago, the Americas around 15,000 years ago, remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand between the years 300 and 1280.
The closest living relatives of humans are gorillas. With the sequencing of the human and chimpanzee genomes, current estimates of similarity between human and chimpanzee DNA sequences range between 95% and 99%. By using the technique called a molecular clock which estimates the time required for the number of divergent mutations to accumulate between two lineages, the approximate date for the split between lineages can be calculated; the gibbons and orangutans were the first groups to split from the line leading to the h
Fungus
A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separate from the other eukaryotic life kingdoms of plants and animals. A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants and some protists is chitin in their cell walls. Similar to animals, fungi are heterotrophs. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores, which may travel through the water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems; these and other differences place fungi in a single group of related organisms, named the Eumycota, which share a common ancestor, an interpretation, strongly supported by molecular phylogenetics. This fungal group oomycetes; the discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology. In the past, mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known fungi are genetically more related to animals than to plants.
Abundant worldwide, most fungi are inconspicuous because of the small size of their structures, their cryptic lifestyles in soil or on dead matter. Fungi include symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi and parasites, they may become noticeable when fruiting, either as molds. Fungi perform an essential role in the decomposition of organic matter and have fundamental roles in nutrient cycling and exchange in the environment, they have long been used in the form of mushrooms and truffles. Since the 1940s, fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics, more various enzymes produced by fungi are used industrially and in detergents. Fungi are used as biological pesticides to control weeds, plant diseases and insect pests. Many species produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides, that are toxic to animals including humans; the fruiting structures of a few species contain psychotropic compounds and are consumed recreationally or in traditional spiritual ceremonies.
Fungi can break down manufactured materials and buildings, become significant pathogens of humans and other animals. Losses of crops due to fungal diseases or food spoilage can have a large impact on human food supplies and local economies; the fungus kingdom encompasses an enormous diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies, morphologies ranging from unicellular aquatic chytrids to large mushrooms. However, little is known of the true biodiversity of Kingdom Fungi, estimated at 2.2 million to 3.8 million species. Of these, only about 120,000 have been described, with over 8,000 species known to be detrimental to plants and at least 300 that can be pathogenic to humans. Since the pioneering 18th and 19th century taxonomical works of Carl Linnaeus, Christian Hendrik Persoon, Elias Magnus Fries, fungi have been classified according to their morphology or physiology. Advances in molecular genetics have opened the way for DNA analysis to be incorporated into taxonomy, which has sometimes challenged the historical groupings based on morphology and other traits.
Phylogenetic studies published in the last decade have helped reshape the classification within Kingdom Fungi, divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, ten subphyla. The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus, used in the writings of Horace and Pliny; this in turn is derived from the Greek word sphongos, which refers to the macroscopic structures and morphology of mushrooms and molds. The word mycology is derived from the Greek logos, it denotes the scientific study of fungi. The Latin adjectival form of "mycology" appeared as early as 1796 in a book on the subject by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon; the word appeared in English as early as 1824 in a book by Robert Kaye Greville. In 1836 the English naturalist Miles Joseph Berkeley's publication The English Flora of Sir James Edward Smith, Vol. 5. Refers to mycology as the study of fungi. A group of all the fungi present in a particular area or geographic region is known as mycobiota, e.g. "the mycobiota of Ireland". Before the introduction of molecular methods for phylogenetic analysis, taxonomists considered fungi to be members of the plant kingdom because of similarities in lifestyle: both fungi and plants are immobile, have similarities in general morphology and growth habitat.
Like plants, fungi grow in soil and, in the case of mushrooms, form conspicuous fruit bodies, which sometimes resemble plants such as mosses. The fungi are now considered a separate kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, from which they appear to have diverged around one billion years ago; some morphological and genetic features are shared with other organisms, while others are unique to the fungi separating them from the other kingdoms: Shared features: With other euka
Extinction
In biology, extinction is the termination of an organism or of a group of organisms a species. The moment of extinction is considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point; because a species' potential range may be large, determining this moment is difficult, is done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" after a period of apparent absence. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that lived on Earth are estimated to have died out. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. In 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth with only one-thousandth of one percent described. Through evolution, species arise through the process of speciation—where new varieties of organisms arise and thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological niche—and species become extinct when they are no longer able to survive in changing conditions or against superior competition.
The relationship between animals and their ecological niches has been established. A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance, although some species, called living fossils, survive with no morphological change for hundreds of millions of years. Mass extinctions are rare events. Only have extinctions been recorded and scientists have become alarmed at the current high rate of extinctions. Most species that become extinct are never scientifically documented; some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing plant and animal species may become extinct by 2100. A 2018 report indicated that the phylogenetic diversity of 300 mammalian species erased during the human era since the Late Pleistocene would require 5 to 7 million years to recover. A dagger symbol placed next to the name of a species or other taxon indicates its status as extinct. A species is extinct. Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no surviving individuals that can reproduce and create a new generation.
A species may become functionally extinct when only a handful of individuals survive, which cannot reproduce due to poor health, sparse distribution over a large range, a lack of individuals of both sexes, or other reasons. Pinpointing the extinction of a species requires a clear definition of that species. If it is to be declared extinct, the species in question must be uniquely distinguishable from any ancestor or daughter species, from any other related species. Extinction of a species plays a key role in the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis of Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge. In ecology, extinction is used informally to refer to local extinction, in which a species ceases to exist in the chosen area of study, but may still exist elsewhere; this phenomenon is known as extirpation. Local extinctions may be followed by a replacement of the species taken from other locations. Species which are not extinct are termed extant; those that are extant but threatened by extinction are referred to as threatened or endangered species.
An important aspect of extinction is human attempts to preserve critically endangered species. These are reflected by the creation of the conservation status "extinct in the wild". Species listed under this status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are not known to have any living specimens in the wild, are maintained only in zoos or other artificial environments; some of these species are functionally extinct, as they are no longer part of their natural habitat and it is unlikely the species will be restored to the wild. When possible, modern zoological institutions try to maintain a viable population for species preservation and possible future reintroduction to the wild, through use of planned breeding programs; the extinction of one species' wild population can have knock-on effects, causing further extinctions. These are called "chains of extinction"; this is common with extinction of keystone species. A 2018 study indicated that the 6th mass extinction started in the Late Pleistocene could take up to 5 to 7 million years to restore 2.5 billion years of unique mammal diversity to what it was before the human era.
Extinction of a parent species where daughter species or subspecies are still extant is called pseudoextinction or phyletic extinction. The old taxon vanishes, transformed into a successor, or split into more than one. Pseudoextinction is difficult to demonstrate unless one has a strong chain of evidence linking a living species to members of a pre-existing species. For example, it is sometimes claimed that the extinct Hyracotherium, an early horse that shares a common ancestor with the modern horse, is pseudoextinct, rather than extinct, because there are several extant species of Equus, including zebra and donkey. However, as fossil species leave no genetic material behind, one cannot say whether Hyracotherium evolved into more modern horse species or evolved from a common ancestor with modern horses. Pseudoextinction is much easier to demonstrate for larger taxonomic groups; the coelacanth, a fish related to lungfish and tetrapods, was consi
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics, including several countries. The term southern Africa or Southern Africa includes Angola, Eswatini, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, though Angola may be included in Central Africa and Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in East Africa. From a political perspective the region is said to be unipolar with South Africa as a first regional power. Another geographic delineation for the region is the portion of Africa south of the Cunene and Zambezi Rivers – that is: South Africa, Eswatini, Botswana and the part of Mozambique which lies south of the Zambezi River; this definition is most used in South Africa for natural sciences and in guide books such as Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa, the Southern African Bird Atlas Project and Mammals of the Southern African Subregion. It is not used in political, economic or human geography contexts because this definition cuts Mozambique in two.
In the United Nations scheme of geographic regions, five states constitute Southern Africa: Botswana Eswatini Lesotho Namibia South AfricaThe Southern African Customs Union, created in 1969 comprises the five states in the UN subregion of Southern Africa. The Southern African Development Community was established in 1980 to facilitate co-operation in the region, it includes: Angola Botswana Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Eswatini Lesotho Madagascar Malawi Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Seychelles South Africa Tanzania Zambia Zimbabwe The region is sometimes reckoned to include other territories: Angola – part of Central Africa in the UN scheme. Comoros, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, Zambia, Zimbabwe – part of Eastern Africa in the UN scheme; the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, though more reckoned in Central and Eastern Africa are included in Southern Africa as they are SADC members. The terrain of Southern Africa is varied; the region has both low-lying coastal areas, mountains.
In terms of natural resources, the region has the world's largest resources of platinum and the platinum group elements, chromium and cobalt, as well as uranium, copper, titanium and diamonds. The region is distinct from the rest of Africa, with some of its main exports including platinum, gold, copper and uranium, but it is similar in that it shares some of the problems of the rest of the continent. While colonialism has left its mark on the development over the course of history, today poverty, HIV/AIDS are some of the biggest factors impeding economic growth; the pursuit of economic and political stability is an important part of the region's goals, as demonstrated by the SADC. In terms of economic strength, South Africa is by far the dominant power of the region. South Africa's GDP alone is many times greater than the GDP's of all other countries in the region. Mining and tourism sectors dominate the economies of Southern African countries, apart from South Africa which has a mature and flourishing financial sector, retail sector, construction sector.
Most global banks have their regional offices for Southern Africa based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Over the years, some the other Southern African nations have invested in economic diversification, invested public funds into rail and air transportation as part of a concerted effort through SADC to boost regional trade and improve communication and transportation; the countries in this region belong to the Southern Africa Power Pool, which facilitates the development of a competitive electricity market within the SADC region and ensures sustainable energy developments through sound economic and social practices. The main objective of the power pool is to develop a world class and safe interconnected electrical system across the Southern African Region. According to a report by Southern Africa Power Pool, the three largest producers of electricity in Southern Africa as at 2017, include Eskom in South Africa with an estimated 46,963MW, Zesco in Zambia with 2,877MW and SNL of Angola with 2,442MW.
Southern Africa has a wide diversity of ecoregions including grassland, karoo and riparian zones. Though considerable disturbance has occurred in some regions from habitat loss due to human overpopulation or export-focused development, there remain significant numbers of various wildlife species, including white rhino, African leopard, kudu, blue wildebeest, vervet monkey and elephant, it has complex Plateaus. There are numerous environmental issues in Southern Africa, including air pollution and desertification. Southern Africa is home to many people, it was populated by indigenous or native Africans San and Pygmies in dispersed concentrations. Due to the Bantu expansion which edged the previous native African peoples to the more remote areas of the region, the majority of African ethnic groups in this region, including the Xhosa, Tsonga, Northern Ndebele, Southern Ndebele, Tswana and Shona people, BaLunda, Ovimbundu, Shona and Sukuma, speak Bantu languages; the process of colonization and settling resulted in a significant population of native European and Asian descent in many southern African co
