What animals are seriously underrepresented as emojis?

Representation is key in all walks of life, and this includes the humble world of emojis. Scientists from Italy’s National Research Council recently mapped all the animal and nature emojis in the Unicode library against the phylogenic tree of life and found that they are seriously lacking in certain departments.

The team found that 76 percent of the current animal emojis represent popular vertebrates. Contrarily, only 16 percent are arthropods like the spider and crab, 4 percent are mollusks, 2 percent are cnidarians like the jellyfish and only 1 percent are annelids. This lack of emoji biodiversity represents similar trends of prioritizing more popular and recognizable animals over other less visible but equally important species.

“While the biodiversity crisis may seem distant from the online world, in our increasingly digitized society, we should not underestimate the potential of emojis to raise awareness and foster appreciation for the diversity of life on Earth,” the team wrote. They have made a plea to the Unicode Consortium to prioritize more diverse representation of species in emojis going forward.