Two new mushroom-looking species have been discovered in the deep waters along the south-east Australian continental slope by researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

According to findings recently published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the new creatures are "multicellular and mostly non-symmetrical, with a dense layer of gelatinous material between the outer skin cell and inner stomach cell layers," according to the research team in a report by Phys.org.

Study leader Jørgen Olesen told Phys.org the organisms -- spotted at around 400 meters, or 1,300 feet, and 1000 meters, or 3,300 feet, respectively, have been classified as two new species in a new genus, Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides, belonging to the new family, Dendrogrammatidae.

Scientists generally classify organisms based on similar characteristics using taxonomic categories, including kingdom, phylum and species.

The authors of the study actually collected the organisms in question 28 years ago, as part of a wider sampling of the area's marine life.

But, the team only recently isolated the two mushroom-shaped organisms that they couldn't classify into any existing phylum.

The organisms were classified as two new species in a new genus, Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides, in the new family, Dendrogrammatidae.

In fact similarities were found between the new creatures and members of Ctenophora and Cnidaria, two types of plankton, which suggests that they may be related to one of these phyla.

Similarities were also seen with 600 million-year-old Pre-Cambrian life forms, now extinct and believed by some scientists to be to be earlier, ailed attempts at multi-cellular life.

The study authors explained they originally preserved the mushroom-like specimens in neutral formaldehyde and stored them in 80 percent ethanol, which ruled out conducting any molecular analysis on them in the future.

That's why there's a renewed effort to go back to the area and collect new samples to examine.

Until a newer is completed, said Olesen, he and his research colleagues hold two "new mushroom-shaped animals from the deep sea discovered, which could not be placed in any recognized group of animals. Two species are recognized and current evidence suggest that they represent an early branch on the tree of life, with similarities to the 600 mill old extinct Ediacara fauna."

Olesen promises more answers to come.