Until now there have only been two known species of seagragons, with the last being discovered 150 years ago. However, powerful new DNA tools have allowed researchers to more carefully analyze previously collected samples and identify a new, third, species.

Using both DNA and anatomical research tools, researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego found evidence for the new species using samples provided by the Western Australia Museum (WAM).

Having found some evidence, the researchers requested the full specimen as well as photographs taken in 2007. The team, which included graduate student Josefin Stiller and Greg Rouse of Scripps as well as Nerida Wilson of the Western Australia Museum (WAM) were surprised by the color of the new specimen. It was bright red and vastly different than the orange, yellow and purple coloring of known seagragons.

The team, whose research is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, named the new species Phyllopteryx dewysea, or ”Ruby Seadragon.”

“We’re now in a golden age of taxonomy and these powerful DNA tools are making it possible for more new species than ever to be discovered. That such large charismatic marine species are still being found is evidence that there is still much to be done. This latest finding provides further proof of the value of scientific collections and museum holdings,” said Rouse, curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection in a statement.

The identification of the original Ruby Seadragon was part of Stiller’s graduate research on the population genetics of the known species found off the Australian coast. Stiller studies genetic diversity and migration in the hope of encouraging sea dragon conservation.

“A CT (computer tomography) scan gave us 5,000 X-ray slices that we were able to assemble into a rotating 3-D model of the new seadragon. We could then see several features of the skeleton that were distinct from the other two species, corroborating the genetic evidence,” said Stiller in a statement.

According to the researchers the new species’ coloring suggests that it lives in deeper water than the Leafy and Common Seadragons.

After the initial discovery, Wilson examined WAM collections more thoroughly and found a second Ruby Seadragon specimen which had washed up on a beach almost 100 years ago. Stiller found two more in the Australian National Fish Collection.

“This new seadragon first entered the Western Australia Museum’s collection in 1919, and lay unidentified for almost a century. Recognizing this new species demonstrates how museum collections underpin biodiversity discovery,” said Wilson.

In this case it is largely the availability of new tools that made the discovery possible. However, it is not unusual for new species to be discovered in museum collections decades after the fact.

According to Nancy Simmons, Curator-in-Charge, Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History, “while scientists may have a hunch about a specimen in the field, the actual discovery is more commonly made in scientific collections—often years after collections are brought back and filed away. On average, more than two decades pass between the first collection and archiving of a new species and its formal description,” she said.

“What accounts for the delay? For one, the sheer volume of the collections. Major expeditions in the early 20th century routinely brought thousands of specimens into the Museum’s collections, and researchers are still playing catch-up,” explained Simmons.

The authors of the most recent study now hope to find Ruby Seadragons in the wild.

“It has been 150 years since the last seadragon was described and all this time we thought that there were only two species. Suddenly, there is a third species! If we can overlook such a charismatic new species for so long, we definitely have many more exciting discoveries awaiting us in the oceans,” said Wilson.

Sea dragons, which are fond exclusively off the southern coast of Australia have camouflage so effective that once they reach adult size, they have no known natural predators. However, pollution and limited range have caused concern about their long term survival according to Australian Geographic.