discovery record refers to the way in which
species identifications accumulate over time.
For example, Figure 1 shows a discovery record
of large marine species – those over 2 metres in
length – compiled by Charles Paxton in 19981
.
The curve in Figure 1 appears to be levelling
off and it seems natural to predict the total
number of species in this group by fitting its
asymptotic value. Paxton fitted the curve S(t)
= Stotal – (bS(t)/t), where S(t) is the known
number of species identified after t years