Featured Image Credit: TENGKU BAHAR / Contributor / Getty / iPhone Emoji Keyboard
Scientists have called for the smartphone emojis to more accurately reflect the full extent of biodiversity on our planet Earth.
The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee creates all emojis - regardless of your app - and regularly updates the emoji catalogue to better reflect diversity, offering a larger range of skin colours and genders.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Milan used the Emojipedia website to analyse emojis, specifically focusing on icons related to the 'tree of life'.
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They identified a total of 112 emojis, which consisted of 92 animals, 16 plants, a toadstool-looking fungus, and a microorganism bearing some resemblance to E. coli.
Safe to say, there is an overall lack of diversity of plants, fungi, and microorganisms.
Although animals were well represented as a whole, a total of 76% of animal emojis are vertebrates. Leaving only 16% arthropods (insects and crustaceans), 4% molluscs, 2% cnidarians (underwater creatures), and 1% annelids (worms and leeches).
More specifically, the researchers argued that there was an uneven distribution among certain animal species. For instance, there are multiple bear emojis, ranging from pandas to polar bears, whilst a phylum like flatworm - with over 20,000 species - lacks any representation at all in the emoji catalogue.
Can you believe that, not one single emoji for a flatworm?
However, distinguishing between specific species might become quite difficult when emojis have a very limited size. For example, creating separate emojis for a crocodile and an alligator might cause confusion, with a basic colour system and minute size.
Scientists presented that 'in our increasingly digitised society, we should not underestimate the potential of emojis to raise awareness and foster appreciation for the diversity of life on Earth.'
Jennifer Anderson, a microbial ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences said: 'If you are working to save the aquatic fungi, you first must let people know that yes, aquatic fungi exist, then describe in words what they look like – usually not like mushrooms.'
Emojis are a simple, colourful and direct way of communicating online - and the researchers don't underestimate the impact it could have on public education.
An ecologist at the National Research Council of Italy stresses the importance of combining education with social media: 'A good representation of the tree of life in social media can greatly help to disseminate the message that biodiversity is much more than just cats, dogs, lions and pandas.
'There is an impressive number of organisms, and all of them play a fundamental role for our planet, even the ones we know less.'
