A team of scientists released the most complete "Tree of Life" chart, which depicts how all the known 2.3 million species on Earth are related to one another.

Of course, the Animal Kingdom is always growing and new species are discovered every so often, so it will be impossible to ever have a complete Tree of Life, in all likelihood. But we can always have a "most" complete Tree of Life, and now we do.

According to The Washington Post, 15,000 new species are discovered every year, making the task of charting them all with species past and present increasingly complicated. Published with the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers who put together the new, updated Tree of Life have made it publicly accessible.

"This is the first real attempt to connect the dots and put it all together," principal investigator Karen Cranston, of Duke University, said in a press release. "Think of it as Version 1.0."

The initial tree combined results from about 500 similar models, The Post noted, and the researchers will likely seek to examine even more surveys and studies.

"There's a pretty big gap between the sum of what scientists know about how living things are related, and what's actually available digitally," Cranston said.

One major obstacle the researchers face is accessibility, as some trees are not available for digital download while others may not be optimized for digital input.

"As important as showing what we do know about relationships, this first tree of life is also important in revealing what we don't know," study co-author Douglas Soltis, of the University of Florida, said in the release. "Twenty five years ago people said this goal of huge trees was impossible.

"The Open Tree of Life is an important starting point that other investigators can now refine and improve for decades to come."