A study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed 1,445 new RNA viruses.

The research published in the Journal Nature is expected to open doors for future studies about the origin of life and evolution. Zhang Yongzhen, a researcher from the National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, said that the newly-discovered viruses will serve as a challenge to the existing rules of viral nomenclature.

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The study started in 2011 and involved 220 invertebrate species including insects, which made up for 95 percent of all animals examined. Some of the viruses are under new families due to their deviations from established species. The researchers said that the discovery adds to the diversities of RNA viruses.

The latest classification of viruses released in 2011 only included 2,284 species. A peer review mentioned that the study provided an "enormous diversity of lineages and genome structures" that will "revolutionize understanding of the virosphere."

Zhang explained that "the discovery of a new virus was slow in the past because most scientists were concentrating on vertebrates such as birds, pigs and dogs, since it was natural for people to inspect livestock first when an epidemic emerged." The researcher said that based on their research, invertebrates are more likely to carry more microbes and that many viruses affecting vertebrates originated from backboneless species.

The research also discussed the co-evolution between the hosts and the microbes. Xu Jianqing of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Fudan University said that evolved hosts can contract different viruses.

In 2002, an epidemic threatened the Guangdong province in China and the whole world as a fatal disease caused death to many individuals. Authorities had no certain diagnosis until it hit 37 nations and caused 774 mortalities after five months. Canadian scientists revealed that the culprit is a new virus called SARS. To avoid another epidemic, scientists started to study unknown viruses.

"In the past, we have discovered new viruses only after an outbreak. Some viruses have even remained unknown for decade," Yongzhen said.

"With the lesson learned from SARS, we started to wonder how many unknown diseases are waiting for us. And that is the starting point of this research - to learn of viruses before an epidemic happens," Zhang added.