Although this approach has the distinct
virtue of being based on an explicit model of
the species discovery process, shortcomings
remain2
. First, on the technical side, unless
the rate at which species identifications
have accumulated over time has slowed, the
fitting can blow up, essentially predicting an
infinite number of species. In this respect,
the discovery record for large – and therefore
relatively easily discovered – marine species is
well suited to this approach. Their discovery
rate has indeed slowed down. In contrast,
the discovery record shown in Figure 2 for
all marine taxa currently in WoRMS shows
no sign of levelling off. Second, the way the
model represents the species discovery process
is highly stylised. Among other things,
species discoveries often occur in batches,
as new technologies are deployed, new