D id you know that there are so many species in the world that scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy compared to the number of species on Earth. It is estimated that there are roughly 2 million to 100 million species around, with the best estimate of about 10 million. Yet till today, only about 1.4 to 1.7 million have actually been named. Every year, new species are being discovered around the globe.

On an average, about three new species of birds are found each year, and as recently as 1990, a new species of monkey was discovered. But other vertebrate groups are still far from being completely described. An estimated 40 percent of freshwater fishes in South America have yet been classified.

In 1980, scientists were startled when they came across a tremendous diversity of insects in tropical rainforests. In Panama, scientists were shock with what they found within only 19 trees. Of the 1,200 beetle discovered, more than 80 percent were previously unknown to science. Today, at least 6 million to 9 million species of arthropods (non-insects such as Mites, Spiders, Crustaceans etc), maybe more than 30 million are now thought to dwell in the tropics with only a small fraction currently described.

Yet while scientists are constantly discovering new and interesting species, we are also losing 20,000 to 100,000 known species per year. This happens widely through the lost of habitat that is so common in the world today. It has been estimated that if the lost of species continues at this rate, we may be seeing the lost of 20% of all species on the planet within the next 30 years.

Actually, extinction is part of mother nature. Species are constantly dying while others take their places. The worrying and unusual thing is the rate of extinction caused by human activities around the world, especially in the the rainforests. Till now, scientists have no idea what will result from the rapid extinction of such a large number of species. But they do know that the disappearance of plant and animal species could deprive human beings of an invaluable resource.