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Strange alien-like creatures have been discovered in the ocean depths off Australia.

Two bizarre species of the organisms were found that could not be placed in any existing phyla, the large families of living things that include vertebrates and flowering plants.

The animals, known as Dendrogramma, resemble mushrooms and consist mainly of an outer skin and inner stomach separated by a dense layer of jelly-like material. 

Strange: The animals (two specimens pictured) belong to the  Dendrogramma family and consist mainly of an outer skin and inner stomach separated by a dense layer of jelly-like material

Scientists suspect they are related to ancient extinct life forms that lived 600 million years ago and may have represented a failed early attempt at multicellular life. 

They were discovered in a collection of organisms dredged up in 1986 from depths of 1,312 and 3,280ft (400 and 1,000 metres) on the south-east Australian continental slope off eastern Bass Strait and Tasmania.

Researchers have only now isolated the two species of Dendrogramma described in the latest edition of the online journal PLOS ONE.

Alien: The creatures (aerial view pictures) may be related to extinct life forms that lived 600 million years ago

The species have been named Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides.

Danish lead scientist Dr Jorgen Oleson, from the University of Copenhagen, said: 'New mushroom-shaped animals from the deep sea have been discovered which could not be placed in any recognised group of animals.

'Two species are recognised and current evidence suggest that they represent an early branch on the tree of life, with similarities to the 600 million-year-old extinct Ediacara fauna.'

Ediacara fauna, are a unique group of of soft-bodied organisms preserved throughout the world in fossil impressions in sandstone from the Proterozoic Eon,

Scientists believe these fauna represent an important landmark in the evolution of life on Earth as they immediately predate the explosion of life-forms at the beginning of the Cambrian Period 541 million years ago.

A new attempt may now be made to find other specimens of the mushroom animals.

They creatures discovered in a collection of organisms dredged up in 1986 from depths of 1,312 and 3,280ft (400 and 1,000 metres) on the south-east Australian continental slope off eastern Bass Strait and Tasmania