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Estimated Number of Animal and Plant Species on Earth

Believe it or not, there are about 950,000 species of insects

No one knows for sure how many species of animals exist on Earth. In fact, some 10,000 species of animals are discovered each year, with over one and a half million species already described. Projections for the total number of species on Earth range from 2 million to 50 million.

Animal group	Number of species
Vertebrates
Amphibians	6,199
Birds	9,956
Fish	30,000
Mammals	5,416
Reptiles	8,240
Subtotal	59,811
Invertebrates
Insects	950,000
Molluscs	81,000
Crustaceans	40,000
Corals	2,175
Others	130,200
Subtotal	1,203,375
Plants
Mosses	15,000
Ferns and allies	13,025
Gymnosperms	980
Dicotyledons	199,350
Monocotyledons	59,300
Green Algae	3,715
Red Algae	5,956
Subtotal	297,326
Others
Lichens	10,000
Mushrooms	16,000
Brown Algae	2,849
Subtotal	28,849
Total	1,589,361

Source: The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) 2007 Red List.

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