"Asking why knowing all the species makes a difference is similar to asking why knowing all the chemical elements is important. Without knowledge of all the chemical elements, the predictive aspect of chemistry would be limited. Without knowledge of all the species, the predictive aspect of biology is limited," says David Hillis, an advisor to All-Species, director of the school of biological sciences, and Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
And the task is daunting. Over the past few centuries, scientists have identified and named only 1.8 million of the estimated 10 to 100 million extant species. Said advisor Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor and Honorary Curator of Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, at the announcement of the project at Harvard on October 13, 2000, "A full global biodiversity map is the foundation of the encyclopedia of life on ...
