A new year means new species of plants and animals will be discovered on Earth. Currently, scientists think they have discovered about ten per cent of the Earth’s plants and animals, which means they still have a long way to go to identify all of the living species. Hundreds of new species of fish, plants, fungi, and other living things were identified in 2024, further expanding our knowledge of Earth and reinforcing the fact that there’s still a lot scientists don’t know about our little blue planet.

Among the new discoveries is a new moth from Madagascar that survives by drinking the tears of sleeping birds. In fact, eleven new species of moth have been discovered in 2024. Eight new crab species were identified, four new rats, four snakes, 149 new species of plants, and 23 new species of fungi were all identified over the past year.

Among the discoveries were dozens of new fish species including the vegetarian piranha of Brazil, which is disk shaped and prefers plants to eat over people (phew!). A type of an aquatic mouse was discovered, a blob headed fish, and even a ghost shark in the ocean neat New Zealand. The official name for the shark is “Australasian Narrow-nosed Spookfish” and, apparently, loves to hang out near the bottom of the ocean just off of New Zealand’s south Island. Because they live near the bottom of the ocean, very little is known about this type of fish.

One of the most fascinating finds of the past year was an apple-sized mollusk that glows in dark water. The “sea slug” has a paddle-like tail and a gelatin like look and is the first of its kind to be found living in the deep ocean.

All of these discoveries point to one thing – we are just scratching the surface of what’s actually living on Earth. By this time next year, it’ll be very exciting to know what scientists find in 2025.