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According to the latest information about half of the marine species are just duplicates.

Marine recount reduces the number of species by half


Friday, March 13, 2015, 9:10 AM - The old saying might be quite wrong, according to the latest research by the World Register of Marine Species effort.

The world registry identified an impressive 228,450 known marine species by sifting through countless research papers that have been published on the topic. Unfortunately, they were also able to find close to 200,000 "species" that were just duplicates of marine organisms that had been previously identified.

Champion among the multiply-named, the Rough Periwinkle—officially Littorina saxatilis — has been described and named a total of 113 times.

During the last eight years, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) has been hard at work narrowing down the taxonomic redundancies that abound in the scientific field.


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Based out of the Flanders Marine Institute in Belgium, the international effort worked hard on creating the registry and now consider their job almost done.

"Though a few relatively minor gaps remain, we consider the register now virtually complete with respect to species described throughout scientific history," said WoRMS co-chair Jan Mees in a statement. "And, of course, we are constantly updating with newly-described species, revisions of taxonomy, and adding occasional species that have been overlooked."

There was some good news at least. In 2014, many new species were identified including two kinds of dolphins and 130 sponges.

Overall, WoRMS members are happy with the work they have done.

"I am very proud of what WoRMS has achieved. it represents the collective effort of well over 200 editors distributed around the world and it is now a truly global resource," said WoRMS chair Geoff Boxshall in a statement. "I especially want to pay tribute to the taxonomic specialists. Without their expertise and their commitment, WoRMS wouldn't exist."


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