A creature that has been described as like "a face hugger from Alien" was discovered by a shocked dog-walker on a Brit beach.
Julie Barker had been strolling with her pup in Gosport, Hampshire, on the beach between Hill Head and Lee On Solent, when the family pet alerted her to the strange specimen.
The "very shrivelled and dry" remains had what looked to be exposed bone or cartilage on full display, with a long tail with sharp thorn-like spikes on it.
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Hampshire Live reported that Julie posted pictures of the skeletal creature on Facebook with her boots next to it for size perspective.
She said: "My dog brought it to my attention and I just wondered what kind of ray it is, or I thought it may be a skate of sort. The body looked more like cartilage than bone. The skin that was left was very shrivelled and dry."
People got creative when speculating what the animal might be. The post's top comment was "Looked like a face hugger from alien." Then one woman replied "zenomorph."
A Facehugger is a parasitic lifeform that hatches from Xenomorph Eggs in the Alien movie. Xenomorph is the species, one of the deadliest of all known alien types, according to fandom online.
Another person added: "Freaky." Some more down to earth suggestions were that the creature was a sea ray of some kind, such as a Thornback Ray.
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One woman replied: "Rays don’t have bones and the cartilage remains would be much larger for the pectoral fins or ‘wings’. I don’t know what the species is but I did look into the rays to check."
One man added: "Its been winged by the look of it that's the banjo left" whilst another said: "My money is on its come from the sea, after that I have no idea."
Dr Tim Ferrero, senior marine biologist at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust said: "This looks like the remains of a ray or skate which has had its wings eaten (or cut) away.
"There's not much to go on for a proper ID but judging by the tail, it could've been a thornback ray which, like all our ‘rays’ except the stingray, is actually a skate."
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