A new species of seadragon has been discovered off the coast of Western Australia by researchers at the Western Australian Museum.

The Ruby Seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea) is colored a bright red and is only the third species of seadragon ever recorded in the world.

The only other two seadragon species, also found off the southern coast of Australia, are the orange colored Leafy Seadragon (Phycodurus eques) and the purple-yellow Common Seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus).

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Seadragons look like seahorses to the untrained eye. They are anywhere from eight to 10 inches in length.

Scientists have since located three other specimens of the newly identified Ruby Seadragon in museum collections.

Australian Culture and the Arts Minister John Day said the discovery was nearly 100 years in the making since the first recorded seadragon specimen was washed up on Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Western Australia in 1919. 

"For many years the specimen found in Cottesloe and another subsequent find were thought to be a common seadragon," Day said.

A combination of modern DNA sampling technology and research linking it to other species led to the discovery of the Ruby Seadragon as a new species. It was identified and classified by Western Australia Museum scientist Dr. Nerida Wilson and her colleagues.

"It has been 150 years since the last seadragon was described and all this time we thought that there were only two species," said Wilson, a scientist at the Western Australia Museum. "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."

The process of identifying the Ruby Seadragon also involved researchers with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

They identified a genetic anomaly when they looked at the seadragon whose DNA sequence wasn't quite similar to the other species. The tests showed them the Ruby Seadragon's genetic uniqueness was matched by its distinctive red pigmentation.

"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," said Greg Rouse, curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection.

Advanced imaging allowed scientists to study the anatomy of the Ruby Seadragon and confirm their genetic findings.

"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," said Scripps graduate student Josefin Stiller.

"We could then see several features of the skeleton that were distinct from the other two species, corroborating the genetic evidence."