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Giant Jellyfish Previously Unknown To Science Washes Up In Australia

<p>Family stumbles across creature on Tasmanian beach.</p>
Image: Giant jellyfish
An undated photo received on February 6, 2014 shows a 1.5-metre (4ft 11ins) new species of giant jellyfish that washed up on a beach near Hobart near Tasmania. Lisa Gershwin, a scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, said the type of jellyfish had been seen in the past, but never one so big and not one that became beached. JOSIE LIM / AFP - Getty Images

An Australian family went to the beach to collect sea shells, but instead stumbled across a gigantic jellyfish that has piqued the interest of scientists.

The pancake-like creature measured 4ft 11in across and was previously unknown to science, according to Australia's federal-run Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

The denizen of the deep was found by Josie Lim and her family as they walked along a beach near Hobart on the island of Tasmania.

"This was something else. We've just never seen anything like it," Lim told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Scientist Lisa-Ann Gershwin told the paper that the Lims' find was "amazing". She believes it was a previously undiscovered type of lion's mane jellyfish.