Moon jellyfish have the ability to age backwards - just like the F Scott Fitzgerald character Benjamin Button.
The discovery was made by a graduate student at China's Xiamen University called Jinru He, who raised a baby male moon jellyfish that he picked up from the ocean.
When it died, he put the corpse into a new tank, and noticed a polyp appear on the specimen three months later.
The observation - the first of its type - has been described as akin to a piece of butterfly wing sprouting a caterpillar.
Most jellyfish start life as buds off polyps on ocean floor or a coral reef, but the creation of a polyp in this way had never been seen before.
It was later discovered that injured adult jellyfish move to the bottom of the ocean floor, where they can transform back into their infant state and grow again.
In a scientific paper the student wrote: "The present study describes the unprecedented potential of life cycle reversal in Aurelia by showing that the polyp stage can be achieved directly from both juvenile and sexually mature medusae."
While the latest observation is new, moon jellies have long been known for their powers of transformation.
Last year Caltech researchers found that when they lose limbs they do not regrow them.
Instead they reorganise their bodies so that they stay symmetrical. This even occurs when the creatures have as few as two limbs remaining.
Maintaining symmetry is vital for propulsion and feeding, the researchers found.
Turritopsis dohrnii, known as the immortal jellyfish, has been shown to be able to revert to its youthful state from maturity.
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