Creatures from Australian coast defy traditional biological classification

by Ben Reilly Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:53 am

Two unclassifiable mushroom-shaped creatures have been discovered in the ocean depths off Australia.

Two species of the strange organisms were found that could not be placed in any existing phyla, the large families of living things that include vertebrates and flowering plants.

The animals, known as Dendrogramma, consist mainly of an outer skin and inner stomach separated by a dense layer of jelly-like material.

Scientists suspect they are related to ancient extinct life forms that lived 600 million years ago and may have represented an early attempt at multicellular life.

They were discovered in a collection of organisms dredged up in 1986 from depths of 400 and 1,000 metres on the south-east Australian continental slope.

Researchers have only now isolated the two species of Dendrogramma described in the latest edition of the online journal Public Library of Science ONE.

The species have been named Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/04/two-unclassifiable-species-found-off-australian-coast

Seems like Australia has a knack for this sort of thing ...

by Lone Wolf Sat Sep 06, 2014 8:39 am

I USED to have those Frenchie snail munchers nuking the Muraroa Atoll seemingly every second week, to blame for any strange sea critters washing upon our beaches and things that glowed in the dark. Until they eventually stopped bombing the shit out of the South Pacific about a decade or so back, and decided they could just as easily save a few million francs each year by irradiating victor and nicko's backyards instead..

NOW I'll just have to blame these strange newfound wee little oceanic beasties on those mythical "Fukashima radiation blumes" instead...

alien

by nicko Sat Sep 06, 2014 8:56 am

Why do you keep dragging my name into all your demented rants? What the fucks wrong with you ? By your posts you seem to have the answer to every post on here. You never start a post, you make comments as if you know the answer to every thing wrong with the world! You know nothing, now fuck off and get a job.

by Lone Wolf Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:36 am

I DID also notice that those specimens were dragged up way back in 1986...

STILL during the midst of the French assaults upon our shores..

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Creatures from Australian coast defy traditional biological classification

Creatures from Australian coast defy traditional biological classification

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