In Australia, a mysterious jellyfish with similarities to the deadly box jellyfish has been discovered.


Researchers are baffled after a previously unknown jellyfish was sighted off Australia's east coast.

The critter I described has structural similarities to the hazardous box jellyfish seen in the country's northern tropical waters.

Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin, a biologist who has described more than 200 types of jellyfish and written books about the sea critter, told The Sydney Morning Herald, "It's a heck of a find."

The mystery animal, according to Gershwin, was not the Australian box jellyfish.

"It is not Chironex fleckeri, the box jellyfish," Gershwin said, according to the Guardian newspaper. "It is, however, a box-shaped jellyfish that is linked to Chironex. My first thought was, "That doesn't belong in Sydney.""

Two encounters with the jellyfish were captured on camera by a Sydney resident.

According to media sources, Scott Belcher first saw it a fortnight ago on Cronulla's Shark Island.

Belcher initially confused the creature for a jimble, a non-lethal type of southern box jellyfish.

"We swam a little further south to Shelly beach and saw what I thought was a really enormous jimble," Belcher told The Guardian, "but shooting it [we] realised it's a lot meaner."


The most deadly animal on the planet is the Australian box jellyfish.

The experiences with the new jellyfish have prompted advice on how to treat marine stings properly.