Clear sea creature — with ‘frilled’ lips — found in Japan port. It’s a new species

As massive ships arrive in the Onahama Port on the eastern coast of Japan, their giant propellers agitate the water.

Using a plankton net with incredibly small holes and a plastic SCUBA bottle, researchers scoured the surface water until a few tiny creatures were caught in their nets and placed in the bottle, according to a study published July 2 in the journal Hydrobiology.

At first glance, the bottle may have appeared empty. But under closer inspection, completely translucent jellyfish were swirling around inside.

Called Eutima onahamaensis, they were just discovered as a new species.

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The “umbrella” or upper pancake-like body of the jellyfish was flat, researchers said, just a few millimeters high and about double the size in diameter. The edges of the umbrella are thickened, and the structure of the jellyfish creates the image of a cross-hair, according to the study.

Only four tentacles extend from the body to create the entire jellyfish, called a medusa, according to the study.

The mouth of the new species is cruciform, or in the shape of a cross, with “four frilled lips,” researchers said.

“Medusae of Eutima onahamaensis sp. N. appeared in shallow waters (about 16 feet in depth) in June (2022) in a range of cold-temperature localities on the coast of Onahama, Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, eastern Japan,” according to the study. “The medusae swam by contracting their tentacles and relaxed with extended tentacles.”

Jellyfish are some of the planet’s oldest creatures , according to the Marine Conservation Society, and have been successful because of their rudimentary biology.

Made of 95% water, jellyfish don’t have a skeleton, brain, lungs or hearts, and are instead made of muscles and soft, squishy filler, according to the society.

Onahama Port is just south of Iwaki.

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