It seems like every few months, people along coastal areas come across some really creepy looking creatures. Considering there is so much we don't yet know about what lurks below the surface in our oceans, we shouldn't be surprised to discover that creatures like this exist.
Reddit user xxviiparadise has posted this image to the social networking site, saying it weighs around seven pounds (3.2kg) and is about five inches (13cm) wide. It has no eyes - at least, that are immediately apparent - and no mouth, but two very large... well, balls.
Credit: Reddit/xxviiparadise
Some people have commented that it could be a dead sea hare, which is also known as a Californian sea slug. It was discovered on Leo Carrillo Beach in Malibu, California.
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There have been a few strange marine discoveries recently, causing the Internet's intrepid sleuths to dust off their investigative hats.
Australian scientists on a two-month long journey into waters off the east coast were looking to see what survived four kilometres deep. Down in those cold, dark depths near Jervis Bay, they managed to find an interesting looking fish with nostrils and a mouth, but no face.
Credit: Twitter/Museums Victoria
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After freaking out some people, it was finally identified as a cusk eel.
But that was nothing compared to the collective 'wtf' people exclaimed when video footage emerged from Indonesia showing the carcass of a huge sea creature. There were early theories from locals that it could have been a giant squid, but all such talk was abandoned because the carcass was much bigger than the average squid.
Credit: YouTube/Patasiwa Kumbang Amalatu
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Eventually it was deemed to be a whale.
Chief scientist at Ocean Observatory, George Leonard told Huffington Post: "Trying to identify huge ocean creatures half a [world] away from a grainy video is tough to do, but once people start sharing specific information that begins to narrow in on defining characteristics of the creature, the identity begins to come into focus."
The throat pleats and the upper jaw were apparently the two giveaways, according to Live Science. The site believes the whale could have been dead from anywhere between two weeks to a few months, as it appeared to be in an advanced stage of decomposition.
That's why the carcass appeared to be so foreign, because the gases produced during that stage of death inflate the body and distort its appearance.
Featured Image Credit: Reddit/xxviiparadise