Sunday Examiner
Dr Gershwin is amazed at the richness of the Tasmanian waters, particularly as she is only concentrating on small species in the top metre below the surface.
A WORLD expert says Tasmania is a gold mine of undiscovered jellyfish species, including one that could be immortal.
US-born Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin, who took up her appointment last month as Curator of Zoology at the Launceston’s Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, has since discovered 20 new and unnamed species of jellyfish in Tasmanian waters.
She is in the process of naming and classifying them.
Among her finds are a jellyfish with its sex organs on its head, a creature never before seen anywhere in the world. And at Port Sorell she recently discovered a tiny jellyfish that could prove to be immortal like its close relative Turritopsis nutricula.
Turritopsis nutricula originates in the Caribbean and is able to reverse its ageing process and recreate itself over and over again as a clone.
Dr Gershwin is amazed at the richness of the Tasmanian waters, particularly as she is only concentrating on small species in the top metre below the surface.
