NEET
- Exam
- NEET
- Subject
- Botany
- Chapter
- Biodiversity and its Conservation
NEET · Botany · Biodiversity and its Conservation
What is the estimate made by Robert May about the total number of...
What is the estimate made by Robert May about the total number of species on earth?
Options
- A20 to 50 million
- B7 million
- C1.5 million
- D10 million
Correct answer
B. 7 million
Step-by-step solution
Considering that an overwhelmingly large proportion of the species waiting to be discovered are in the tropics, biologists make a statistical comparison of the temperate-tropical species richness of an exhaustively studied group of insects and extrapolate this ratio to other groups of animals and plants to come up with a gross estimate of the total number of species on earth. Some extreme estimates range from 20 to 50 million, but a more conservative and scientifically sound estimate made by Robert May places the global species diversity at about 7 million