Table 1.

A comparison of the Southern Ocean fauna with estimates of global species richness for the largest benthic groups. Global richness data come from Groombridge & Jenkins (2002), Bouchet & Rocroi (2005), De Grave et al. (2009); Southern Ocean (SO) richness data come from the Register of Antarctic Marine species (RAMS: www.scarmarbin.be/rams). Note that the shelled gastropod global figure includes terrestrial forms, but the vast majority of this group are marine, and the teleost figure includes deep-sea and pelagic species.

group	global richness	SO richness
decapods	15 000	13
bivalves	10 000	136
shelled gastropods	80 000	446
teleost fish	25 000	398