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A Cumulative Species Description Curve For Large Open Water Marine Animals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

C.G.M. Paxton
C.G.M. Paxton
Affiliation:
Animal Behaviour Research Group, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS.
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Extract

A cumulative species description curve (from 1830 to 1995) is given for open water marine fauna in excess of 2 m long in the major axis of the body. This curve has not yet closely approached its asymptote. Estimation by maximum likelihood fit of a hyperbola suggests a maximum of some 47 species awaiting formal scientific description and an approximate current rate of description of one new species every 5·3 years. Consideration of the most recently described species and recent observations by field workers suggests that any imminent species descriptions are most likely to be cetaceans.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , November 1998 , pp. 1389 - 1391
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

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