We Haven’t found it all yet

The other day I was ignoring all of my scholastic responsibilities and  watching one of my all-time favorite series, Planet Earth. I have to say, when I found out they were making a sequel to the original series, I was as happy as a schoolgirl in a candy store. As I have mentioned in my original post, I was always obsessed with the world around me and Planet Earth gave me the satisfaction in knowing there was some adventure left in this world- even when life might seem gray and boring. In the current season’s jungles episode talked about here a truly amazing thing was captured, dolphins  in the jungle. No, I’m not drunk- there are dolphins that live among the flooded tree tops after the wet season. Seen in the BBC picture below are the newly discovered dolphins. This led me to think that we have been to almost every corner of the earth is there species out there that we have not encountered yet, and what can those species mean to science? The hypothesis that I would come up would be that there are some species that we have not came across but although not that many. Boy, did the information that I researched about the subject blow me away. I came across this National Geographic article with unbelievable results. Over the years we have identified and classified 1.2 million species but there is to be estimated a total of 8.7 billion species on earth. This leaves around 86% on the earth to be discovered. We need to start looking into discovering these species and the possible scientific secrets that they hide. Unfortunately we may not get the chance. A lot of these undiscovered species live in the jungles and rain forests. More than an acre of this land is lost every second according to This fact sheet. We need to stop destroying this planet one acre at a time for our own benefit. Maybe there is an outside chance that shows with incredible camera work and determination like that shown from the Planet Earth crew more attention can be drawn and we can save the lands and discover all of the organisms that live in these mysterious worlds. planet-earth-ii

4 thoughts on “We Haven’t found it all yet

  1. Michael David Kresovich

    I think this is a very intersting artlce because of how true the title is. that ois what caught my attention. We really have not discovered all of the world, and that is so cool and fascinating. We have been gifted with many wonders the wrld has given us, I wan to find out more what it has to offer. Great article and check this out too.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxhObEpZcp0

  2. Reetu Shah

    I definitely do agree that we have so much more to discover. Another mechanism for why we haven’t found it all is because maybe we don’t have the technological advancements to make it to some places, like the ocean floor for example. Your hypothesis should be a bit more specific. Maybe if you have the 86% stat in the hypothesis, then we would get an idea of how little we have discovered yet. Your phrasing is just a bit vague there, because not much could mean a lot of things
    What is in the unknown is definitely something to ponder. I myself am very obsessed with ocean life and how vast that ecosystem is. Stated from the National Ocean Service, this article talks about we have only discovered 5% of the ocean. It is actually pretty insane if one thinks about it because there is so much life yet to be discovered. I kind of diverted the topic a bit and found a very interesting article on the ocean floor by Jon Copley from Scientific American. Your article got me thinking of how much we don’t know much about ocean life, but we really don’t know much about the ocean floor. Copley explains that the ocean floor is very hard for people to explore because the mass amounts of pressure are impossible for people to get that deep. He also points out that David Sandwell and colleagues in Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, used satellites to measure the sea floor. The satellites use radar to get the different heights of the sea floor. The sea floor contains many mountains, ridges, and trenches too. It is really interesting to wonder what different species could be living there.

    (2014) How much of the Ocean have we explored. National Ocean Service.
    http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html

    Copley, J. (2014) Just How Little Do We Know about the Ocean Floor.
    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/just-how-little-do-we-know-about-the-ocean-floor/

  3. Luyi Yao

    This planet is really magic. In the history of this planet, it gestates billions of life. The weather, temperature, oxygen, and many other factors build this special environment. In the tropical forests, glaciers, volcanoes, deep sea, and many special extreme environment, there are creatures existing. It is very cool. I’d like to recommend a series of videos from BBC called “Planet Earth”. http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/planet-earth I hope you like it!

  4. Lucille Laubenstein

    While there is much to be discovered in the world’s tropical rain forest, it is not the only place where there is thought to be undiscovered life. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a part of the US Department of Commerce, reported that 95% of the ocean is still yet to be explored, and we have seen even less of the ocean floor. Within that, a study conducted in Current Biology suggests that we have only discovered two thirds of the ocean’s inhabitants. Understanding that it is just an estimation, and could be off, that is still a vast amount of beings to be classified. The next question to ask is in what amount of time do you think it will take for those species to be identified? Will we ever be able to locate and confirm the existence of all of these species? With the increasing global temperature, and pollutants in the atmosphere, as well as general human activity, will we be able to recognize these creatures before their habitat is destroyed? I hypothesize that a chunk of them will be identified within our lifetime, but perhaps not the 8.7 million estimated species out there.

    These are the links for the information regarding the ocean.
    http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html
    http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(12)01138-4

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