Biodiversity

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Australia's Biodiversity (3)

The taxonomic groups in this chart make up a tiny fraction of Australia's biodiversity - an estimated 100 species , in total, 0.02% of estimated species diversity. Nevertheless, all biodiversity is important, and some of these taxonomically tiny groups are particularly important in our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth.

The size of each block is proportional to the estimated numbers of species in different groups of organisms (also given as a percentage). The dark section of the pie chart shows the proportion of the estimated species in the group that have not yet been named.

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There are an estimated 20 species of entoprocts in Australia's oceans, around 80% of which have been named.

There are an estimated 20 species of arrow worms in Australia's oceans; more undoubtedly remain to be discovered.

There are 13 known species of spoon worms in Australia, and it's unlikely more will be discovered

There are an estimated 10 species of jawless fishes in Australia, half of which have been named

Eight species of mud dragons are known from Australia, all of which have been named

Ten species of tongue worms are known from Australia, all of which have been named

Eight species of jaw worms are known from Australia, all of which have been named

Eight species of lancelets are known from Australia, all of which have been named

Six species of loriciferans are known in Australia, four of which have been named

Eight species of phoronids are known from Australia, all of which have been named

Two species of priapulids are known from Australia; it is unlikely that more will be found

Numbers in this chart are derived from this publication by the Australian Biological Resources Study, updated by taxonomist Gerry Cassis and colleagues in a chapter in this book.

Note that some numbers are very uncertain, particularly for hyperdiverse but poorly known groups such as bacteria, nematodes and fungi.