A dogwalker spotted the strange creature on the beach, and it was difficult to identify due to its advanced state of decomposition
A dog walker was left stumped after happening upon a strange creature while walking on the beach.
However, due to the animal’s advanced stage of decomposition it was difficult to actually tell what the mysterious creature actually was.
It was spotted by Jem, 42, who had been out walking her dogs along the beach in Australia.
While it’s difficult to see, there is a clear head with eye sockets, as well as the spine jutting out of the back, along with what remains of a pectoral fin.
It looks like the remains of some sort of bony fish, but apart from that it’s a mystery.
Jem recalled the moment that she spotted the creature, saying: “We’ve been having really wild storms in Victoria for the last few weeks so perhaps the storm surges caused it to wash up.
The strange creature was washed up on the beach (Pen News)
“My dogs discovered it on the beach and were sniffing around it. The fish looked really spooky. Its eye sockets were massive.”
She added: “We swim at the beach every week in summer so I was pretty shocked to think of such a big fish washing up there.”
As for what it could be, Jem was not sure. She said: “People said it could be a giant sunfish, a globefish or a pufferfish. It did look like a pufferfish but I’ve never seen one that big before.”
Lawrence Chlebeck, a marine biologist at Humane Society International was also unsure as to exactly what species the creature was.
Chlebeck did think that it was a bony fish, or teleost, narrowing it down to only around 26,000 species.
Nonetheless he did think that the most likely candidates for it were either a tuna or a grouper due to its large size.
No-one could figure out what it was (Pen News)
Sheridan Rabbitt from the Centre for Marine Science at the University of Queensland had a different notion entirely as to the identity of the strange creature.
Rather than a tuna or grouper, Rabbitt thought it was some sort of pufferfish or a globefish.
But the advanced state of decomposition in the creature rendered its true identity a mystery.
The ocean is renowned for the multitude of weird and wonderful creatures that inhabit it.
From the more well-known animals such as the large sharks all the way to the just downright strange.
For example, one creature is called Phronima and burrows into gelatinous plankton to live as a parasite.
Phronima has indirectly become an icon of the big screen as it was the inspiration for the Xenomorph in the Alien movie franchise.
Featured Image Credit: Pen News
