Table 1. Taxon counts for major mammalian taxonomic compendia since 1980 in How many mammal species are there now? Updates and trends in taxonomic, nomenclatural, and geographic knowledge
Authors/Creators
- 1. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87106, United States
- 2. Hesperomys Project, Orinda, CA 94563, United States
- 3. Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, Smithsonian Institution and George Mason University, Front Royal, VA 22630, United States & Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC 20008, United States & College of Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, United States
- 4. Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, United States
- 5. School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
- 6. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, United States
- 7. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, United States
- 8. Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840 - 3702, United States
- 9. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, United States
Description
Table 1. Taxon counts for major mammalian taxonomic compendia since 1980 (see Fig. 1 for graphical representation of species totals for each, except IUCN totals), including the 3 editions of Corbet and Hill’s (C&H) A World List of Mammalian Species; editions 4 through 6 of Walker’s Mammals of the World (WMW); Anderson and Jones’ Orders and Families of Recent Mammals of the World (A&J); Duff and Lawson’s Mammals of the World: A Checklist (D&L); 3 editions of the Mammal Species of the World (MSW); Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World (CMW); International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2008 and 2024-1 listings; and 2 major versions of the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD1 and MDD2).
| Taxa | C&H1 1980 | MSW1 1982 | WMW4 1983 | A&J 1984 | C&H2 1986 | C&H3 1991 | WMW5 1991 | MSW2 1993 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Species | 4,005b | 4,170 | 4,151 | 4,199 | 4,231 | 4,336 | 4,444 | 4,629c |
| Wild extant | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A |
| Recently extinct | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A |
| Domestic | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A | N A |
| Genera | 1,014 | 1,033 | 1,017 | 1,057 | 1,055 | 1,066 | 1,116 | 1,135 |
| Families | 129 | 135 | 133 | 131 | 132 | 131 | 135 | 132 |
| Orders | 21 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 26 |
| Taxa | WMW6 1999 | D&L 2004 | MSW3 2005 | IUCN 2008 a | MDD1 2018 | CMW 2020 | IUCN 2024 | MDD2 2024 |
| Species | 4,809 | 5,115 | 5,416 | 5,489 | 6,495 | 6,554 | 5,983 | 6,753 |
| Wild extant | N A | N A | 5,338 | 5,410d | 6,382 | 6,451 | 5,899d | 6,629 |
| Recently extinct | N A | N A | 75 | 79 | 96 | 103 | 84 | 113 |
| Domestic | N A | N A | 3 | 0e | 17 | 20 | 0e | 17 |
| Genera | 1,192 | 1,117 | 1,230 | 1,241 | 1,316 | 1,343 | 1,308 | 1,353 |
| Families | 146 | 128 | 153 | 156 | 166 | 167 | 164 | 167 |
| Orders | 28 | 27 | 29 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 27 |
aIUCN 2008 totals based on Schipper et al. (2008).
bLists 4,007 species, but we identified 2 duplicates (what is now Brucepattersonius iheringi is listed under both Microxus and Oxymycterus, and Prosciurillus leucomus is listed under both Prosciurillus and Callosciurus).
cTotal provided in Solari and Baker (2007) and used in Burgin et al. (2018) was found to be incorrect while counting the MSW2 species total and we here provide a corrected total.
dIncludes species classified as Extinct in the Wild and does not include humans.
eThe IUCN does not assess domestic species.
Notes
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Additional details
Identifiers
Related works
- Is part of
- Journal article: 10.1093/jmammal/gyaf047 (DOI)
- Journal article: urn:lsid:plazi.org:pub:9A42BD6A8A3FFFB4097B8E70945FFFDE (LSID)
- Journal article: http://zenodo.org/record/17381510 (URL)
- Journal article: http://publication.plazi.org/id/9A42BD6A8A3FFFB4097B8E70945FFFDE (URL)
References
- Schipper J, Chanson JS, Chiozza F, Cox N A, Hoffmann M, Katariya V, Lamoreux J, Rodrigues A SL, Stuart SN, Temple HJ, et al. 2008. The status of the world's land and marine mammals: diversity, threat, and knowledge. Science 322 (5899): 225-230. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165115.
- Solari S, Baker RJ. 2007. Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference by D. E. Wilson; D. M. Reeder. Journal of Mammalogy 88 (3): 824-830.
- Burgin CJ, Colella JP, Kahn PL, Upham NS. 2018. How many species of mammals are there? Journal of Mammalogy 99 (1): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx147.