Imagine speciation for all species on an ancient, imaginary world taking place at an undeniably fantastic rate.
OK I have done that
Not sure I have the rate of ' speciation taking place at a fantastic rate '
But I'll go with what I have got
Now what?
Assuming that life began on this ancient world with a specific number of distinct species,
Got it
Because I am not good at mathmatics I'll pick a low number
931
Now what?
how could you measure the initial number of original species?
Tricky
I have 931 original species
Who go through
a fantastic rate of speciation
until I have lets say 23,875 species
Even though this is an imaginary world I am going to presume some real world definetions
First my original 931 species cannot interbreed
Second none of the offshoot species can interbreed with other species from a different original species
ie instead of 1 tree of Life as on Earth I have 931 trees
Now comes the hard work
Collect 1 of each of now 23,875 species
Sample DNA or equivalent
Look in the fossils for previous versions of my 23,875 species
Keep going until I arrive at a number that holds steady say 1,092
Retire at the top of my game
Of course I could never know there were 931 original species
And successive generations even if they arrive at 931 will continue to took for links between those species
How did I go?
1,092 is only 161 short but the older the species the fewer the specimens