The census of marine life is done, after 10 years of work by 2,700 scientists from 80 nations with a price tag of $650 million. What did we learn? Ocean, we barely know ye. According to CNN, scientists estimate that there are more than 1 million marine species but only about 250,000 have been formally described in scientific literature over the centuries. Those figures exclude microbes -- of which the census estimate there are up to 1 billion kinds.
Myriam Sibuet, vice-chair of the Scientific Steering Committee on the mammoth study, said: "The census enlarged the known world. Life astonished us everywhere we looked. In the deep sea we found luxuriant communities despite extreme conditions.
Extreme conditions, that's my speciality as a scientist...like the time I rode inside a submarine down 10,000 feet to a hydrothermal vent community. Now THAT is living! Tweet
