DOZENS of new branches on Earth’s tree of life were discovered this year thanks to a team of researchers that scoured the globe for new species.

Mediterranean ants, goblin spiders, sea slugs, flowering plants and coral were just some of the 71 new species researchers at the California Academy of Sciences uncovered this year.

6 This cat-eyed cardinalfish was one of the new species discovered in 2019 Credit: Mark Erdmann

6 Researchers found this girdled lizard is found on the second-highest mountain peak in Angola in 2019 Credit: Ishan Agarwal

In total, 17 fish, 15 geckos, eight flowering plants, six sea slugs, five arachnids, four eels, three ants, three skinks, two skates, two wasps, two mosses, two corals, and two lizards were discovered by scientists across five continents and three oceans.

Researchers made the incredible finds by “venturing into Croatian caves, diving to extreme ocean depths, and surveying savanna forests,'' the academy said in a statement.

Among the finds was a bright purple fish dubbed Cirrhilabrus wakanda -- a nod to the Marvel comic and hit movie, Black Panther.

The colorful species is found in “Twilight Zone” reefs in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanzania, about 260 feet below the surface.

6 The "Wakanda fish" was found this year and named in honor of the Marvel comic and movie Credit: Luiz Rocha

6 The myrmecicultor chihuahuensis arachnid -- an ant-loving spider -- was found in Mexico Credit: Darrell Ubick / California Academy of Sciences

“When we thought about the secretive and isolated nature of these unexplored African reefs, we knew we had to name this new species after Wakanda," Yi-Kai Tea, lead author of the study, told CNN.

Another discovery, a rare white-blossomed plant named Trembleya altoparaisensis, had proven especially difficult to find in the wild, Emeritus Curator of Botany Frank Almeda said.

“People don’t think plants move but they do,” he said. “When an environment changes, plants will move to areas that better suit them.”

Another find was the myrmecicultor chihuahuensis arachnid -- an ant-loving spider that calls the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico home, while researchers also uncovered a striking cat-eyed cardinalfish that swims in the waters of Papua New Guinea.

This stunning sea slug was also discovered by researchers in 2019

This flowering plant was discovered in Mexico this year

And there are still plenty more yet to be unearthed.

“Despite decades of tirelessly scouring some of the most familiar and remote places on Earth, biodiversity scientists estimate that more than 90% of nature’s species remain unknown,” Shannon Bennett, PhD, and Academy Chief of Science, said.

“Each newly discovered species serves as an important reminder of the critical role we play in better understanding and preserving these precious ecosystems.”

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Sadly, the new number of new species discovered falls well short of the number of species at risk of potential extinction, with the United Nations warning earlier this year as many as one million are at risk.

“The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Chair, Sir Robert Watson, said in May.

“The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”