14 DAY TRIAL // A recent paper in the journal PLOS ONE announces the discovery of two new species of aquatic creatures. These previously undocumented animals are now known as Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides.
What's really interesting about these teeny tiny organisms is the fact that, as noticeable in the photo accompanying this article, their bodies are shaped like mushrooms.
As detailed in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers first got their hands on these new creatures several decades ago. Thus, they were pulled from Australian waters during an expedition that took place in 1986.
Rather than studying them right away, specialists stored them. It was only recently that they finally got around to analyzing their anatomy and found that they belonged to two undocumented species.
The creatures look nothing like the other ocean dwellers scientists have had the chance to analyze over the years. Hence, they are now included in a brand new genus of their own, Nature informs.
This is yet to be confirmed, but researchers suspect that these aquatic creatures are related to marine animals that populated our planet's seas and oceans millions of years ago.
“Current evidence suggest that they represent an early branch on the tree of life, with similarities to the 600 mill old extinct Ediacara fauna,” explains specialist Jørgen Olesen with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.