This sort of statement has always fascinated me: *”There are thought to be approximately 160,000* *species* *of moth,* ***many of which have yet to be described.****”*
How do we (well, “they”) ascertain what percentage of the total count are those we *haven’t* yet found?
(Note: I couldn’t find anything like this in posts containing “species” in the last year or so, so apologies if this has been answered further back).
In: 10
It’s a guess.
The classification we have has gaps. We can see how many genes are different between the known species, and the closest species are X genes different. Then for every gap that’s 10X we presume there are 9 missing species. Maybe they are extinct – but we don’t see them in the historical record. We don’t know, maybe we just haven’t found them.
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