I collected the species data from the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (November 23, 2022) and got some interesting results. The following chart shows the number of described species by year. Dark green is accepted species, light green is all species (accepted + synonym).

The ratio between synonym (synonym + homotypic synonym + heterotypic synonym) and accepted species, dark green is synonym, light green is accepted.

Accepted only.

Synonyms only.

And I want to point out the most noticeable waves on the charts.

* 1753 *

This year, Carl Linnaeus published his book Species Plantarum. Species Plantarum was the first botanical work to consistently apply the binomial nomenclature system of naming to any large group of organisms. Prior to this work, a plant species would be known by a long polynomial, such as Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatis pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti (meaning "plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindrical spike and a terete scape"). In Species Plantarum, these cumbersome names were replaced with two-part names, consisting of a single-word genus name, and a single-word specific epithet (Plantago media).

* 1758 *

Before 1758, most biological catalogues had used polynomial names for the taxa included, including earlier editions of Systema Naturae. The first work to consistently apply binomial nomenclature across the animal kingdom was the 10th edition of Systema Naturae. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature therefore chose 1 January 1758 as the "starting point" for zoological nomenclature. Names published before that date are unavailable, even if they would otherwise satisfy the rules.

* 1775 *

Many descriptions from 1775 were published in Johan Christian Fabricius' Systema entomologiæ (1775). He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is considered one of the most important entomologists of the 18th century, having named nearly 10,000 species of animals, and established the basis for modern insect classification.

Also, Ignaz Schiffermüller with Michael Denis published the first index of the Lepidoptera of the Viennese region: das Systematische Verzeichnis der Schmetterlinge der Wienergegend herausgegeben von einigen Lehrern am k. k. Theresianum (1775).

* 1801 *

In 1801 Johann Gottlob Schneider corrected and expanded re-published Marcus Elieser Bloch's Systema Ichthyologiae iconibus cx illustratum, a famous catalog of fishes with beautiful illustrations that is cited (as Bloch & Schneider, 1801) as the taxonomy authority for many species of fish. It is worth mentioning the Systema eleuthatorum (1801) by Johan Christian Fabricius.

In addition, the number of species descriptions increased during the 19th century, although it experienced a slight drop in the 1860s.

* 1878 *

A large number of species were described by entomologists James Livingston Thomson and Carl Gustaf Thomson, who are cited as Thomson, 1878.

* 1912 *

This year is the record holder for the number of described species (more than 30,000). Many scientists worked at that time, and I can only identify the entomologist Per Olof Christopher Aurivillius, who published descriptions of about 2,000 species in 1912 (Cerambycidae : Cerambycinae. Coleopterorum Catalogus pars 39).

* 1914-1946 *

During the World Wars, the number of published works went down. It will not reach the level of 1912-1913 in the future. In 1946 you may notice a large number of new synonyms, these species were identified by Richard Elliot Blackwelder in his work Checklist of the coleopterous insects of Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and South America. Part 4 (1946).

* 1977 *

Irene Agnes McCulloch described about 2,000 species in her work Qualitative observations on Recent foraminiferal tests with emphasis on the eastern Pacific. University of Southern California. Los Angeles (1977).

* 1992-1994 *

Entomologists Stephen Lane Wood and Donald Edward Bright described over 1800 species in their work A catalog of Scolytidae and Platypodidae (Coleoptera), Part 2: Taxonomic index (1992). And the surge of synonym species in 1994 is associated with the work of entomologists Miguel Angel Monné and Edmund Francis Giesbert (about 2,000 synonym species).

Ranking of scientists by number of described species (accepted only).