Almost invisible, extraordinarily venomous, and almost entirely unknown… and now, scientists have confirmed that they exist in a greater variety of species than we first realised. Yes, this is the box jellyfish, And yes, an entirely new species has just been discovered.
The discovery was made by researchers at Tohoku University and the National University of Singapore who identified the new species of box jellyfish in the coastal waters off Sentosa Island, Singapore.
It has been named Chironex blakangmati after the island’s historical Malay name – Pulau Blakang Mati, meaning “Island of Death Behind” – and its discovery adds a fourth member to the Chironex genus, a group of jellyfish whose stings can kill a human being within minutes.
