We don't need to clear the 4 to 6 percent of the Earth's surface remaining in tropical rain forests, with most of the animal and plant species living there.

The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago.

What we need is an electronic encyclopedia of life, with one page for each species. On each page is given everything known about that species.

Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.

It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the biosphere.

There are actually more than 90 threatened and endangered plant and animal species in that range.