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> never before seen in insects Is this surprising, considering that an estimated 86% of species on Earth and 91% of ocean species remain unidentified? https:/
by sammalloy 6y ago
> never before seen in insects
Is this surprising, considering that an estimated 86% of species on Earth and 91% of ocean species remain unidentified?
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jou...
- crankyoldcrank 6y agoIt's still a completely new thing. something can be surprising just because it's undiscovered previously, despite our knowledge that there's more out there to be discovered
- tooltower 6y agoIt can be fascinating without being surprising. That argument can be used to downplay any new finding in a poorly explored field.
- ghayes 6y agoI'd also argue that it _is_ surprising, as we'd expect the majority of unknown species to be similar to known species. It's not like every unknown species is just randomly created-- most will have ancestors that are well known and studied.
- learnstats2 6y agoConsidering that leaf-cutter ants are well-known to humans (I've seen them in a museum in Amsterdam), I'd say it is surprising that we haven't noticed this before.
- trianglem 6y agoI spent this summer learning about the different mushroom in my area in as much depth as possible and it is incredible how little we know about most of them besides a name and very apparent superficial features.
- Talanes 6y agoThe article takes great pains to point out that Leaf-Cutter Ants are not an unknown species though, they're one of the most-studied species of ant.