Too many cats, not enough crustaceans: The currently available emojis don't accurately reflect the extent of biodiversity observed in nature, harming conservation efforts, scientists said Monday.
• Also read: The return of Facebook channels: don't be fooled
An analysis published in the American journal iScience shows that although animals are well represented, plants, fungi and microorganisms are not sufficiently represented.
“While the biodiversity crisis seems far removed from life on the internet, in our increasingly digitalized society we should not underestimate the potential of emojis to raise awareness and promote the diversity of life on Earth,” write authors Stefano Mammola, Mattia Falaschi and Gentile Francesco Ficetola.
“Developing and maintaining diverse and inclusive emoji collections is essential to ensure a fair representation of the tree of life in digital communication tools,” add these conservation biologists from the University of Milan.
The team evaluated nature and animal-related emojis available on Emojipedia, an online emoji catalog, and tracked their evolution between 2015 and 2022.
Result: Among animals, vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and bony fish) are overrepresented and make up 76% of animal emojis.
Arthropods, including insects, arachnids and crustaceans, were proportionally underrepresented, while there are 1.3 million arthropod species, compared to only 85,000 known vertebrate species.
The researchers also point out that no emoji represents Platyhelminthes (flatworms) or nematodes, even though there are more than 20,000 species of Platyhelminthes and just as many species of nematodes.
However, the diversity of emojis is increasing, the study authors note.
“Annelids gained prominence in 2020 with the addition of the “worm” emoji, thought to represent an earthworm,” as did cnidarians (family of jellyfish and corals), with the addition in 2021 “d “a red coral emoji “,” they state.