90 Percent of All Animal Species

Things I learned today at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History:

Insects and their relatives (collectively called arthropods) are ancient members of the animal kingdom. Arthropods first appear in the fossil record 500 million years ago. Since then, arthropods began cycling nutrients, pollinating plants, eating other arthropods, providing food for fish, mammals, birds and other vertebrates, and even farming. Arthropods now account for up to 90 percent of all animal species.