After eight years, researchers confirmed that a species of dolphin in Victoria waters previously thought to be the bottlenose dolphin is a new species.

The Monash University researchers classified the dolphins as Tursiops australis. They are more commonly known as Burrunan dolphins from an Aboriginal Australian term for "large sea fish of the porpoise kind."

The researchers came up with the classification after comparing museum skulls, teeth and skin with those from dead dolphins washed up along Victoria's shores. The researchers, led by Monash marine biologist Kate Charlton-Robb, then compared the DNA with materials in a global gene bank of all known dolphin species.

The comparison showed that the Burrunan dolphin's DNA was different from the bottlenose species Tursiops truncates and Tursiops aduncus.

Prior to the recent discovery, there have been only thee new dolphin species formally described and recognised since the late 1800s.

"What makes this even more exciting is this dolphin species has been living right under our noses, with only two known resident populations living in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria state," Charlton-Robb told the BBC.

There are about 100 of the creatures in Port Phillip Bay and another 50 in Grippsland Lakes. Because of its small population size, the Burrunan dolphin is considered an endangered species.

Among the noticeable differences in the new dolphin species are their smaller size, lighter colouring, stubbier snouts and slightly curved dorsal fins.

Charlton-Robb's discovery was published in the science journal PLoS ONE.