The number of species on Earth is highly uncertain. A recent study has suggested that there are less than 2 million prokaryotic species on Earth; this Formal Comment suggests instead that there are more likely hundreds of millions or billions of species, and that the majority of these are bacteria associated with insects and other animals.

中文翻译：

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对全球生物多样性的巨大（但可以避免）低估。

地球上的物种数量是高度不确定的。最近的一项研究表明，地球上的原核物种不到 200 万；相反，该正式评论表明，更可能存在数亿或数十亿种物种，其中大部分是与昆虫和其他动物相关的细菌。