You might think that after 200 years, the scientists who find, name, and describe Earth's species would be close to finished. But taxonomists, as organized as they may
be, have no idea how many species Earth has. Nor can they even provide an
educated guess. Although reporting over 16,000 new species every year,
taxonomists still cannot predict how many more are undiscovered.
In total, taxonomists have categorized and listed 1.2 million species on Earth. At this
point, you would think scientists should be able to use the information they have
gathered to make good predictions about how many species an ecosystem can
support. This would help them make better predictions about how many species are
left to identify. So far, however, the guesses seem to vary so greatly that it seems
there is no good theory for making a prediction.
One of the main problems is that most of the places that seem to have a lot of
diverse species are in places that are hard to get to. One such place is the ocean,
where scientists believe some 80 percent of Earth's creatures are hiding at depths
too deep for us to study. In addition, many of the planet's most diverse areas are in
remote places with few taxonomists.
Despite all the unknowns, scientists have agreed that there are between five and 15
million species left to discover on Earth. This is a huge range, but whether it's five or
15, taxonomists clearly still have a lot of work to do. And who knows, there may yet
be a dragon or a Loch Ness monster left to discover.
Which word from the second paragraph explains what taxonomists do? (1 point)
1) Categorized
2) Ecosystem
3) Support
4) Prediction