Scientists Are Discovering 16,000 New Species a Year — and the Pace Is Speeding Up
The number of species on Earth isn’t shrinking as fast as you might think. In fact, scientists are finding new ones faster than at any point in history — and the implications reach well beyond biology into medicine, technology, and conservation.
A University of Arizona-led study published in Science Advances analyzed the taxonomic histories of roughly 2 million species across all groups of living organisms. Between 2015 and 2020, researchers documented an average of more than 16,000 new species per year: over 10,000 animals (dominated by arthropods and insects), 2,500 plants, and 2,000 fungi.
“Some scientists have suggested that the pace of new species descriptions has slowed down and that this indicates that we are running out of new species to discover, but our results show the opposite,” said John Wiens, a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and senior author of the study. “In fact, we’re finding new species at a faster rate than ever before.”
The Gap Between What We Know and What’s Out There
The distance between cataloged species and estimated totals is enormous.
Scientists have described about 42,000 fish species and 9,000 amphibians. The study projects there may be as many as 115,000 fish species and 41,000 amphibian species. The final number of plant species could exceed half a million, according to the researchers.
“Right now, we know of about 2.5 million species, but the true number may be in the tens or hundreds of millions or even the low billions,” Wiens said.
Insects widen that gap even further. Scientists have identified around 1.1 million insect species. According to Wiens, estimates suggest the true number could be up to 6 million or even 20 million.1
These discoveries aren’t limited to organisms invisible to the naked eye. “These thousands of newly found species each year are not just microscopic organisms, but include insects, plants, fungi and even hundreds of new vertebrates,” Wiens said.
The rate of discovery also far outpaces documented extinctions, which his team calculated at approximately 10 species per year. That contrast — 16,000 found versus 10 lost annually — reframes a conversation that often defaults to loss.
DNA Tools Are About to Accelerate Discovery Even Further
Most new species today are still identified by visible traits. That’s about to change.
“But as molecular tools improve, we will uncover even more cryptic species – organisms distinguishable only on a genetic level. This is especially promising for revealing more unique bacteria and fungi,” Wiens said.
Cryptic species look identical to known organisms under a microscope or in the field but carry distinct genetic signatures. As DNA sequencing becomes cheaper and faster, entire categories of life that have been hiding in plain sight will get their own classification. The shift from visual identification to genetic identification represents a quiet revolution in how science catalogs the living world.
New Species Feed Directly Into Medicine and Technology
The discovery pipeline connects to applied science — and some applications are already in use or close to it.
Natural products inspired by organisms include GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss, spider and snake venoms, and compounds from plants and fungi with potential uses in pain relief and cancer treatment. Each newly described species represents a potential source of compounds that pharmaceutical and biotech researchers haven’t yet screened.
Wiens pointed to biomimicry as another avenue: “many species have adaptations that can inspire human inventions, such as materials mimicking the ‘super-clinging’ feet that allow geckos to climb up vertical surfaces.”
The Conservation Stakes
An undocumented species has no legal protections, no habitat designation, no recovery plan.
“Discovering new species is important because these species can’t be protected until they’re scientifically described. Documentation is the first step in conservation – we can’t safeguard a species from extinction if we don’t know it exists,” Wiens said.
That link between discovery and protection makes the pace of identification a practical concern, not an academic one.
What Comes Next
The research team plans to map geographic hotspots for undiscovered species and examine who is making these discoveries. That second question could reveal whether discovery capacity is concentrated in a handful of institutions or spreading across a broader global network.
Wiens framed the current moment in a 300-year arc: “Even though Linnaeus’ quest to identify species began 300 years ago, 15% of all known species have been discovered in just the past 20 years. So much remains unknown, and each new discovery brings us closer to understanding and protecting the incredible biodiversity of life on our planet.”
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
