Five new animals identified in 2026

In 2026 we've seen lots of discoveries, from the first European diplodocus to what's underneath Antarctic ice.

But it's been a massive year for the animal kingdom, as lots of new species have been found for the first time by scientists all around the world.

From bugs named after Tay-Tay, to forest-dwelling wild cats, here are five of the weirdest and most wonderful discoveries this year.

This summer, some scientists snapped pictures of a new monkey species found in a rainforest in Congo.

They have light patches around their eyes and mouths which look like masks, making them easier to identify.

In the last 75 years, only five new species of monkey have been discovered in Africa.

Locals call these ones Likweli, while scientists have named them Colobus congoensis.

In September, four newly discovered species of tiny plant-feeding bugs from Australia were named after Taylor and her music.

Their group has been named Swiftiephylus, after Taylor's fans, the Swifties, with four species given names inspired by the singer and her albums, including Fearless and The Tortured Poets Department.

The scientist who named them hoped the Taylor connection will get more people interested in insects and why it's important to protect them.

Also in September, a new species of wild cat was discovered for the first time in more than 100 years.

It has been named 'Leopardus tilcayo' by scientists, and lives in the forests of Bolivia in South America.

Experts say it is around the size of a domestic cat, but its spotted and striped coat initially made it difficult to tell it apart from other wild cats in the area.

Now, researchers have used DNA tests to reveal that Leopardus tilcayo is actually a species of its own - and say there could be even more new species of wild cats waiting to be discovered.

This little hat-wearing crab was one of 149 sea creatures discovered by scientists in the Indian Ocean.

The sponge crab (Sphaerodromia brizops) is known for wearing marine invertebrates like a hat.

While all 149 species were all technically found in 2021 and 2022, it was in June this year the scientists published their study documenting all of the different weird and wonderful things they found 1000 miles off the coast of Australia.

The specimens they gathered have been sent to museums all around the country to be studied further.

It was a HUGE year for ocean wildlife, as scientists discovered 1,121 previously unknown sea creatures this year.

A whopping 13 expeditions around the world were led by The Nippon Foundation in an Ocean Census, which led to the identification of lots of new things in the sea, including a ghost shark.

Well, it's not actually a shark - chimaeras are actually distant relatives of sharks and rays, and they live very deep in the ocean.

This species was found off the coast of Queensland, Australia, and lives at depths of up to 838 metres.