Diver Dorian Borcherds filmed a giant jellyfish off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Subsequently, a marine biologist determined that this is a new, previously unknown species of jellyfish.
ABC News writes about it.
"Today, while diving, I saw a new type of jellyfish. It has cool markings, itʼs a little bigger than a soccer ball and it swims pretty fast," the diver wrote on social media when he managed to film the animal.
The jellyfish was similar to a creature last seen 25 years ago in 1997 in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. The researchers then captured and studied the animal. It was named Chirodectes maculatus.
But later, marine biologist Lisa-Anne Gershwin took a closer look at Borcherdsʼ video and concluded that it contained a previously unknown species.
Scientists will be able to identify the species of jellyfish from Papua New Guinea after catching a specimen for analysis. But so far it has not been possible to do this.