Australian scientists have used genetic material to pinpoint the origin of the deep-sea mushroom, an unusual gelatinous creature first dredged up near Tasmania in 1986.
The organisms have a cylindrical stalk capped by a flat, semi-transparent disc that houses visible channels branching outwards.
These channels, which resemble tree-like diagrams known as dendrograms, are the basis for its scientific name - Dendrogramma.
The original specimens were described for the first time in 2014 by a team of Danish scientists, one of whom had been aboard the 1986 voyage and later transported the samples to Copenhagen.
The team's findings reveal how little we know about the deep ocean.
With no deep-sea submarines, he says Australia still has to "rely on old-fashioned dredges and sleds, which get dangled all the way to the sea floor, pulled along for a few metres, and then hauled back up again.
"It's all exactly the same as it was in 1870, really. So we're still groping in the dark when it comes to deep-sea research." says Dr Tim O'Hara, a senior curator at Museum Victoria in Melbourne.
The organisms have a cylindrical stalk capped by a flat, semi-transparent disc that houses visible channels branching outwards.
These channels, which resemble tree-like diagrams known as dendrograms, are the basis for its scientific name - Dendrogramma.
The original specimens were described for the first time in 2014 by a team of Danish scientists, one of whom had been aboard the 1986 voyage and later transported the samples to Copenhagen.
The team's findings reveal how little we know about the deep ocean.
With no deep-sea submarines, he says Australia still has to "rely on old-fashioned dredges and sleds, which get dangled all the way to the sea floor, pulled along for a few metres, and then hauled back up again.
"It's all exactly the same as it was in 1870, really. So we're still groping in the dark when it comes to deep-sea research." says Dr Tim O'Hara, a senior curator at Museum Victoria in Melbourne.
