Researchers have discovered 381 new animals and plants species in the Amazonas announced the World Wildlife Fund on 30 August, 2017. The report by the WWF and Brazil's Mamiraua Institute, listed included previously unknown plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, a bird and 20 mammals, reports BBC.

But all the newly discovered animals and plants were found in areas at risk from human activity, the authors warn.

More than 2,000 new species were found between 1999 and 2015.

The Amazon rainforest, the largest in the world, is famous for its diversity of species and habitats.

Ricardo Mello, co-ordinator of the WWF Brazil Amazon programme, said the fact that researchers were still finding hundreds of species was proof that there was much more work to be done in the region.

Undated handout picture taken at an undisclosed location released by WWF Brazil on August 30, 2017 showing a specimen of the new species of dolphin Inia araguaiaensis which was included in the 2014-2015 Report of New Species of Vertebrates and Plants of the Amazon.

Maratecoara gesmonei was found in a temporary pool on an island in the middle of the Xingu river in Brazil.

But Mr Mello warned that human activity such as farming and logging were posing a risk to the flora and fauna of the Amazon.

"All the species that were discovered, all 381, are in areas where humankind is destroying the Amazon. This is very important to us, because it links the fact that our economic activities are causing species to go extinct before we even know about them," he said.

The report comes at a time of heated discussion in Brazil about the use of natural reserves for mining.

On Wednesday, a court suspended a government decree that would have opened up the vast Renca reserve in the eastern Amazon to commercial mining.

The decree, which was backed by President Michel Temer, was described by opponents as "the biggest attack on the Amazon in the last 50 years".

The government said it would appeal against the court's suspension.