The world is on their shoulders: Scientists reveal which animal has the most species

Our planet is rich with countless creatures, but there is also a record-breaking group of animals with the most species on Earth. These are not the furry creatures we cuddle with or the birds in the sky. In fact, if you pick any animal species at random, you’ll probably be wrong in your guesses, Live Science writes.

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Kamilo Mora, a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, points out that about half of the known animal species are insects. That’s about 3 million species of insects. Imagine for a moment: One in every two animal species you know is most likely an insect.

If we dig deeper and ask, which insect is the champion in terms of the number of species? Insects. Jessica Ware of the American Museum of Natural History in New York says that one in three animal species is an insect. This alone amounts to almost 400,000 insect species. For comparison: if there are 3,000 species of snakes, then there are twice as many insects belonging to the same group, for example, ladybugs.

Why are there so many insects, especially beetles? Insects have existed on Earth for a very long time, about 500 million years. This long history gave them enough time to diversify and create countless new species. Many insects have short lifespans, which allows them to reproduce more quickly and gives them more chances for evolutionary change. In addition, insects can adapt to various environmental conditions. For example, it turns out that the evolution of the same insects is quite creative: wings help them fly and at the same time serve as a protective device, allowing them to reliably protect vulnerable parts from danger.

Interestingly, Mora suggests that other animal groups may be as diverse as insects, but we don’t pay enough attention to them. He cites a 2018 study that suggested a group of insects (parasitoid wasps) may have more species than insects. But they remain in the shadow of the record holders and much less research is focused on them.

Although insects dominate the diversity, other animal groups also have their own unique representatives. There are approximately 5.5 thousand species of mammals, and a significant portion of them are rodents such as mice and squirrels. There are approximately 8 thousand species of amphibians, more than 90% of which are frogs and toads. Next come the reptiles, numbering between 10,000 and 12,000 species, of which lizards occupy an important place. What about birds? Only one order of birds – passerines – overlaps almost all mammals in terms of the number of species – 5,300 species. As we descend into the endless depths of the underwater world, we will find ourselves in the habitat of fish with 34,000 species, especially minnows and carp.

But no matter how you look at it, insects and their relatives still have the upper hand. The number of individual insects is staggering: There are approximately 1.4 billion insects for every human. In total, they outnumber our modest population by 70 times. And these are not just impressive numbers. Insects are the unsung heroes of our ecosystems. They play critical roles, from pollination to keeping soil healthy, purifying water, and providing a vital food source for numerous animals.

Therefore, the decline in insect populations is alarming. The consequences are clear, and not very happy: A world without a healthy insect population could disrupt the balance of life as we know it. They may be small, but as More so aptly put it, “humanity stands on the shoulders of these tiny insects.”

Previously Focus He wrote about how many animals have lived on Earth throughout its history. It is difficult to calculate the exact number of all animals that have ever lived on the planet, but scientists have a rough estimate.

Moreover Focus He wrote that rare giant panda twins were born in China. It took scientists more than 30 years to save this species; The appearance of twin pandas gives hope for a population revival.