The creature has needle-like teeth and its body parts are peeled off.
A strange looking rotting sea creature has been found off the coast of the United States.
Images posted to Reddit by user Christine Tillotson show an animal with needle-like teeth lying dead on a pile of rocks. Its body parts are peeling, it seems that it is rotting. In the caption, Ms. Tillotson asked for help identifying the creature and explained that she had come across the animal at Mill Beach in Brookings, Oregon.
The social media post has gone viral since it was shared. Commenting on the pictures, many users speculated as to what it could be. One user wrote, “I guess it’s called aagh!!” Another user speculated that it could be a wolf eel – a species that lives in the North Pacific.
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However, a third user reported that “the teeth aren’t big enough for a wolffish and lingcods have been known to replace teeth daily, which is why you can see the rows of new teeth shrinking.”
According to newsweek, Ms Tillotson has revealed the bone-collecting group, as well as a marine biologist group on Reddit, have agreed that the strange creature is a type of eel called a monkeyface prickleback eel. “When I first saw it I was excited and confused. I love to walk on the beach to see what washes, whether it’s animals or shells. I thought it was very interesting because it looks like any fish. It didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen, it looked like one of those deep sea creatures,” she added.
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According to the outlet, monkeyface prickleback eels, also commonly known as monkeyface eels, are native to the Pacific Coast of North America. They can be found in rocky reef habitats from Oregon to Baja California and Mexico. They are called monkeyface eels because of their unusual appearance – living ones have a large lump on top of their heads, which can look like a monkey’s nose.
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