Jellyfish expert Lisa Gershwin was swimming near the coast of Tasmania and noticed a colourful blob swimming nearby. She was able to safely photograph this specimen by placing it in a small aquarium called a “phototank”. This new jellyfish species doesn’t sting and is 13cm long. The invertebrate is also incredibly fragile – it shatters as soon as it touches a net, she said.

The rainbow glow on the jellyfish comes from light reflecting off the creature’s cilia. Cilia are small hairlike projections that the jellyfish uses to swim.

The new species belongs to Ctenophora, a “strange and poorly known” group of animals, said Ms Gershwin, curator of natural science at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Tasmania.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090317-new-rainbow-jellyfish-picture.html