Not just in the sea, but all over our planet, it is the invertebrates which are the more numerous. In fact, it has been estimated that one group of animals, the nematode worms, account for 80% of all the animals on earth – that’s 4 out of every five animals. Of course, these numbers only apply for the multi-cellular animals, there are many more single-celled organisms, like protozoa and bacterial, and all the single celled plant types as well, and even viruses. These forms of life are by far the most abundant on earth.
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community´s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant agreement n. 217766 