A giant five-feet jellyfish has washed up on an Australian beach, baffling scientists who are now working to classify the new species.
The jellyfish, described as a "whopper" by scientists, was found by a family walking on a beach in southern Tasmania.
Lisa-ann Gershwin with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) told ABC Local Radio that while the species has been seen before, it is technically unclassified and new to science.
"It's a whopper. We do get large jellyfish and this one just happened to be this absolutely enormous specimen," she said.
"I do hear from time to time people tell me 'we found this one that was really big', but this one really is, really big.
"[We] finally got specimens this year of it, so it's new to science, but it's not a brand new thing completely out of left field," she added.
Gershwin, who has been working on jellyfish for 20 years, said the 1.5 metre (4ft 11in) specimen is probably the biggest the state of Tasmania has ever seen.
The jellyfish was spotted by the Lim family at a beach in Howden, south of Hobart, last month.
"We were at the beach looking for shells and dad was like 'Whoa! Look at that'...I kind of touched it...It was pretty cool," said 12-year-old Xavier Lim.
The family took a photograph, and forwarded it to the CSIRO.
Gershwin said the jellyfish is not dangerous, but it can sting.
"It's not life-threatening, but it will sting you, it will wake you up," she said.
Gershwin already has a name picked out for the new species and is now working to get it classified.
