From pirate spiders to veggie piranhas - this year's newly named species

Experts aren't really sure how many species of animal there are, but some suggest the number is in the millions - and that number is growing as more are discovered.

Scientists from the Natural History Museum (NHM) and others they work with, named almost 200 more in the last 12 months.

That includes a vegetarian piranha from the Amazon and two new species of pirate spider.

Sandra Knapp, who is the leading botanist at NHM - that's a scientist who specialises in plants - said every named species has "a story attached to it and having a name allows you to tell that story".

The vegetarian piranha was named Myloplus sauron, after a character from Lord of the Rings - one of the most popular book series of all time.

Its orange and black markings looks a bit like the eye of one of the villains in the books.

NHM scientists have said naming and describing species helps us to understand ecosystems and how they can be affected by humans.

Sandra Knapp said naming the species is a "step in the chain" to working out how nature is adapting to climate change and what kind of things can be done to help protect it.

Ero Lizae - one of two species of pirate spider named this year

A pterosaur that was found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, was also named this year.

The Ceoptera evansae had a wingspan of around 1.6 metres.

Palaeontologist Paul Barrett helped to name species. He said the NHM has relatively few pterosaur from the middle Jurassic age from anywhere in the world.

Naming this species "helps fill in a little bit of a gap in our broader knowledge of where flying reptiles were at this time".

Scientists also named two plant-eating dinosaurs this year - a sauropodomorph from Zimbabwe and a stegosaur from China.