Hurricane Harvey caused destruction and chaos in Texas. But on top of this, the tropical cyclone also deposited a rather strange creature on the beach. «On first glance, it looked like something from the deep sea to me,» explained Preeti Desai, who made the discovery of the odd-looking animal in the sand.
Okay, biology twitter, what the heck is this?? Found on a beach in Texas City, TX. #wildlifeid pic.twitter.com/9IUuuL65qh
— Preeti Desai? (@preetalina) September 6, 2017
«We squished it around a bit, and even turned it over but couldn’t come up with any other ideas,» she added. She also asked the Twitter community for advice, «Okay, biology twitter, what the heck is this?? Found on a beach in Texas City, TX.» And the speculations were soon pouring in.
Here's an ID on @preetalina's hideous eel! https://t.co/92U2uOiq9x pic.twitter.com/vcjw60WsNg
— Sarah Keartes (@sarahkeartes) September 7, 2017
Deep sea experts taking part in the guessing game believe that sea creature washed up on the shore is an eel — a snake eel native to the Gulf of Mexico, with impressive fangs.
Mysterious alien creature corpse washed up on beach identified as Tusky Eel.~ pic.twitter.com/oHw01siuKF
— Asderathos??? (@Asderathos) September 14, 2017
Normally, these animals live 100 to 300ft deep below the surface in burrows on the seafloor, lying in wait for prey. However, strong currents stirred up by the hurricane meant the eel was swept up from the deeps and onto the shore — and now all it does is scare the heck out of beachgoers!
