Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Food and Agriculture Organization defined biodiversity in 2019 as variability among living organisms and their ecosystems. This definition unifies traditional types of biological diversity into one view.
Estimates by Mora et al. in 2011 suggest approximately 8.7 million terrestrial species exist. They also note about 2.2 million oceanic species.
Life on Earth began approximately 3.5 billion years ago as microorganisms including archaea, bacteria, and protozoans. The earliest undisputed evidence dates back at least to 3.7 billion years during the Eoarchean era.
Rainforests hold about half the world's species and provide habitats for 80 percent of amphibian species and 75 percent of bird species. Forests harbor most terrestrial life on our planet and contain diverse life in lowland regions like coastal Brazil and insular Southeast Asia.
An estimated 30 percent of all species could vanish by 2050 according to 2007 projections. Wildlife populations declined by an average 73 percent since 1970 per the World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Report 2024.
At adoption time, 17 percent of land territory and 10 percent of ocean territory were protected. Over 238,563 designated protected areas exist worldwide covering 14.9 percent of Earth's surface.