03 February 2023 , 11:12
812
0
A walker discovered a strange fish washed up on a beach - and it looks like something straight out of a horror movie.
Allen Sklar found the bizarre creature while he was driving by a deserted beach, saying he spotted it out his car window and went to take a look.
The fish, which was around three feet long appeared to have armour plating, external teeth, and a multicoloured exterior, but luckily Allen wasn't too phased as he'd seen one before - on the same beach in Virginia, USA.
He instantly recognised the fish as an Atlantic sturgeon, a rare fish that dates back to the time of the dinosaurs and can grow to massive lengths.
Luckily Allen recognised it as an Atlantic sturgeon (ALLEN SKLAR)Would you have recognised the fish? Let us know in the comments...
Mum's touching gesture to young son who died leaves Morrisons shopper in tears
Allen said he found the fish on the beach at Assateague Island, a 37-mile-long strip of land, and he quickly snapped a few pictures of the creature.
"I drive the 12 miles of beach about 100 days a year and so see a lot of stuff others don't. This was the second sturgeon I have seen in 27 years of driving on the island," Allen said to Newsweek.
He shared a picture of the fish on Facebook, and wrote: "This 37-inch fish is a true member of the dinosaurs.
"It has no scales only rows of hard plates called scutes. A bottom feeder, it will eat almost anything including clams, mussels, and dead fish. Under its chin are four whiskers called barbels which are used to sense the bottom for food. The mouth is hard and bony with no teeth.
"This is a small one, researchers have found them up to 160 pounds in the rivers and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay and [they] can weigh over a thousand pounds in other parts of the world.
"Overfished to the point of almost being extinct they were put on the Endangered Species list in 2012."
The Atlantic sturgeon is a prehistoric fish that can be found in rivers and coastal waters, and can grow up to 14ft in length.
Meanwhile, a hiker who stumbled across a brightly-coloured anomaly during a walk in the woods turned to the internet for help to identify what it could be.
An image was shared on Reddit, showing a red and black entity with tentacle-like protrusions appearing to have spawned from the ground, which was spotted at Mount Nebo, close to Brisbane, Australia.
It was posted by user Aus556762 with the caption: "WTF is this? Smells like rotting flesh. Mt Nebo", while saying the smell - which they also compared to 'death' - was pungent from a metre away.
Scientists plan to ‘de-extinct’ the Dodo and release it back into the wild
They added that it was also attracting flies, and people said it reminded them of something from Resident Evil or Stranger Things.