Marine life from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. Microorganisms constitute more than 90% of the marine biomass. A microorganism (or microbe) is a microscopic living organism, which may be single-celled or multicellular. Microorganisms are very diverse and include all bacteria, archaea and most protozoa. This group also contains some species of fungi, algae, and certain microscopic animals, such as rotifers. Many macroscopic animals and plants have microscopic juvenile stages. Some microbiologists also classify viruses (and viroids) as microorganisms, but others consider these as nonliving. In
Gasteroid fungi described by Linnaeus in his original "Species Plantarum" of 1753, but the first critical treatment of the group was by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in his "Synopsis methodica fungorum" of 1801. Until 1981, this book was the starting point for the naming of Gasteromycetes under the "International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants". Although the starting point was subsequently put back to 1753, names of gasteroid fungi used in Persoon's book are still sanctioned and cannot be replaced by earlier names. Elias Magnus Fries introduced the name Gasteromycetes for a class of fungi in his "Systema Mycologicum" of 1821,