‘Alien mushroom creatures’ found

Unclassifiable mushroom-shaped alien creatures have been discovered in the ocean depths off Australia. Two species of the organisms were found that could not be placed in any existing phyla, the large families of living things including 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 a failed early attempt at multicellular life. They were discovered in a collection of organisms dredged up in 1986.

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. Danish lead scientist Dr Jorgen Oleson, from the University of Copenhagen, said:

“Two species are recognised and evidence suggest they represent an early branch on the tree of life, with similarities to the 600 million-year-old extinct Ediacara fauna.”