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Theme: Biodiversity and ecosystem functionCan we discover Earth’s species before they go extinct?Mark J. CostelloInstitute of Marine Science, Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland,New Zealand.m.costello@auckland.ac.nzThe creation of global species inventories, such as the World Register ofMarine Species, provides a documented measure of how many speciesare known, who has named them, and their rate of description. Contraryto widespread belief the number of people involved in naming species hasbeen increasing and has never been higher. The last decade saw a recordnumber of marine (but not non-marine) species named. The rate of discoveryof marine species has increased in recent decades, but not of terrestrialspecies (which account for about 75% of all named species). This knowledgehas enabled better estimates of how many marine species exist. We appearto be in a golden age of marine taxonomy, with about 2/3 of all species nowdiscovered.The evidence shows that there has been increased effort in discoveringspecies; e.g. that the greater number of authors per species named isnot due to proportionally more part-time taxonomists nor less specialists.Discoveries of microbial diversity will not significantly alter the overall pattern.Microscopic species may have high local species richness and high geneticdiversity, but appear to have low global species richness. This reflects theirease of dispersal and high abundance, in contrast to the biogeographies oflarger species. Thus most species have already been discovered. Tens ofthousands have been collected and await description.Estimates of species extinction rates are now more variable than estimates ofglobal species richness. Until recently, neither had accounted for the presenthigh taxonomic effort. Taken together, it is probable that most species willbe named this century and before they go extinct. This process of discoveryprovides a first step in documenting and understanding biodiversity, and thusaids conservation efforts.- 36 -